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Furnishing your heart

It was Dwight D. Eisenhower who reminded us, "We are going to have peace even if we have to fight for it." Peace is sometimes found as the result of the fight, not just in the absence of it. We might just find ourselves in the fight of our lives, but see no way out. In just the right time, and in just the right way, peace comes. How is that? The fight is still going on around us, but in the midst of it all, there comes a peace that is quite unexpected. It is a "God thing" - something we don't have to understand to appreciate!

Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life. (Philippians 4:7 MSG)

Worry is the natural emotion when the battle rages and the fight gets harder and harder. We find ourselves fretting over the smallest of things. Why? Worry occupies the space of created by doubt in our lives. Anytime doubt is allowed any space, it always clears the way for worry to be made right at home. It is like there is a double-whammy with doubt and worry - one never being far from the other. Both emotions can be a little daunting, especially in the midst of the fight before us, but both can be undone quite easily - in the blink of an eye.

How? We allow our prayers to fly. What happens when we do? Those worries begin to be shaped into praises and those doubts begin to take backseat to God's peace. The worries will have there way until we begin to escalate them into words to God. As soon as we do so, there is a turning of those worries into words of praise, and in rather short order we find there is an overwhelming sense that God is in control. That is the basis of doubt, you know - that we believe God isn't in control. So, does it surprise us that the presence of peace begins to be apparent when we realize he is?

A sense of God's wholeness comes, settling us down. Did you ever stop to consider how much our wholeness is directly related to how much doubt and worry we allow to occupy the space of our lives? It is true - there is a direct correlation between the space we give to our worries and the peace of God. The moment we evict doubt is the moment peace is allowed to move in! God's peace 'fits the space' created by our worries when we have allowed those worries to become praises lifted to him. The presence of God is like no other. Wherever peace is needed the most is the place he will battle hard in order to overthrow all that disturbs or keeps that peace away. Just sayin!
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