Life and peace? Yes, please!

All around us things clamor for our attention, making peace a seemingly elusive concept just out of our reach at times. Paul tells the Romans a mind set on the Spirit leads to life and peace. That sounds great, but how do we do that? How do we take our minds off of our flesh and set them on the Spirit?

Stick around this week and see what God’s word has to say about it …

The Lord, a Root Canal, and Me

You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!

Isaiah 26:3 NLT

Squeamish is not a word that has ever been used to describe me, but I must admit that the dentist can get me feeling a little anxious. My dentist isn’t the one to blame because it’s all me. Between the sounds of the instruments, the foreign objects crammed in my mouth, and trying to answer questions with said objects in my mouth, I want to just skip my appointment altogether. For the sake of full disclosure here, every time I leave the office, I wonder why I got myself so worked up. It’s never as bad as I think it’s going to be!

Now that you know this about me, you can probably imagine that when I needed a root canal, I was not cool as a cucumber. It wasn’t a bad experience physically, but mentally it was awful! I’m talking, somebody give me a brown paper bag! I’m hyperventilating over here! It wasn’t good.

As I was lying in the chair, my mind was trying to go into panic mode. I did my best to keep it all together because let’s face it, I was a 30-something year old woman who knew how to behave, and I really didn’t want to be THAT patient.

During the procedure, I remembered today’s verse: You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you! And so lying in my chair, with all the instruments crammed in my mouth, I began to think about the Lord. With intention, I shifted my thoughts from my circumstances to my Savior. I meditated on His character. I recalled His provision over me in the past and His promises for the future. I recited Scripture. I prayed.

There, lying in a dental chair, peace flooded my soul as I took my thoughts off of my circumstances and put them onto my Savior.

I realize your “root canal”— the situation occupying your thoughts and stealing your sleep, is likely much worse. You feel anxious and weary. Regardless of the circumstance that threatens to sweep you away, our God is a God of peace. Praise God, He is bigger than any circumstance we face.

He is there, His peace waiting to flood your soul as you take your eyes off your problems and fix them on your Provider.

Fixing my eyes on Him,

Traci