Company was coming to town, the house was in disarray, I had mounds of laundry and cooking before me, and I was apologizing to my 10-year-old daughter for being impatient. She gave me a hug and said, \u201cMom, look at the things you have finished, not the things you haven\u2019t.\u201d In essence, the Lord was graciously reminding me through my daughter to \u201crejoice in the Lord always\u201d\u2014in everything\u2014even while in the midst of a list of to-dos (Philippians 4:4).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As daughters of the King, rather than living in worry and fear, we can rejoice in \u201cthe riches of his grace that he richly poured out on us with all wisdom and understanding\u201d (Ephesians 1:7\u20138). I don\u2019t know about you, but so often, I live in and wrestle with worry. When I hear that command to rejoice, I fall into discouragement because I know my life\u2019s not marked by rejoicing. Paul was in prison when he wrote \u201cRejoice!\u201d So why can\u2019t I rejoice where I am today? I spin my wheels trying to figure out how to cultivate a life of joy and peace. Today\u2019s reading reminds me that the answers to how we live this life of faith are found in God\u2019s Word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
God knows how to bring us peace because He is the God of peace (Philippians 4:9). He knows what will bring us true joy. He is always near, and so there\u2019s no reason to worry; His peace will guard our hearts and minds (vv.5\u20139).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We cannot add one moment to our days by worrying, and so we are to set our minds on the Spirit, who offers us \u201clife and peace\u201d (Matthew 6:27; Romans 8:6). Whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable\u2014these are the things we should dwell on (Philippians 4:8). All of these things and more we are able to receive through His Spirit and His Word; He uses both to draw us to Himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Will we continue to worry, to set our minds on things of the flesh? Yes, we may always struggle with that. But we are saved by grace, works in progress; the One who\u2019s begun a good work in us will carry it on to completion (Philippians 1:6). And that is truly a great cause for rejoicing because \u201cas far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us\u201d (Psalm 103:12). Wherever we find ourselves today\u2014even in dark seasons and in overwhelming situations\u2014we can rest in Him and rejoice because the gospel is true.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Company was coming to town, the house was in disarray, I had mounds of laundry and cooking before me, and I was apologizing to my 10-year-old daughter for being impatient. She gave me a hug and said, \u201cMom, look at the things you have finished, not the things you haven\u2019t.\u201d In essence, the Lord was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":177,"featured_media":71280,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[289],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-philippiansandcolossians"],"acf":{"hero_background_image":false,"author_name":"","author_bio":"","guest_social_media":false,"related_plans":[71272],"weekly_truth":false,"grace_day":false,"share_text":"#SheReadsTruth","devotional_text":"PRACTICAL COUNSEL<\/b>
\r\nby Kimberly Girard<\/i>
\r\n
Company was coming to town, the house was in disarray, I had mounds of laundry and cooking before me, and I was apologizing to my 10-year-old daughter for being impatient. She gave me a hug and said, \u201cMom, look at the things you have finished, not the things you haven\u2019t.\u201d In essence, the Lord was graciously reminding me through my daughter to \u201crejoice in the Lord always\u201d\u2014in everything\u2014even while in the midst of a list of to-dos (Philippians 4:4).<\/p>
\r\n
As daughters of the King, rather than living in worry and fear, we can rejoice in \u201cthe riches of his grace that he richly poured out on us with all wisdom and understanding\u201d (Ephesians 1:7\u20138). I don\u2019t know about you, but so often, I live in and wrestle with worry. When I hear that command to rejoice, I fall into discouragement because I know my life\u2019s not marked by rejoicing. Paul was in prison when he wrote \u201cRejoice!\u201d So why can\u2019t I rejoice where I am today? I spin my wheels trying to figure out how to cultivate a life of joy and peace. Today\u2019s reading reminds me that the answers to how we live this life of faith are found in God\u2019s Word.<\/p>
\r\n
God knows how to bring us peace because He is the God of peace (Philippians 4:9). He knows what will bring us true joy. He is always near, and so there\u2019s no reason to worry; His peace will guard our hearts and minds (vv.5\u20139).<\/p>
\r\n
We cannot add one moment to our days by worrying, and so we are to set our minds on the Spirit, who offers us \u201clife and peace\u201d (Matthew 6:27; Romans 8:6). Whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable\u2014these are the things we should dwell on (Philippians 4:8). All of these things and more we are able to receive through His Spirit and His Word; He uses both to draw us to Himself.<\/p>
\r\n
Will we continue to worry, to set our minds on things of the flesh? Yes, we may always struggle with that. But we are saved by grace, works in progress; the One who\u2019s begun a good work in us will carry it on to completion (Philippians 1:6). And that is truly a great cause for rejoicing because \u201cas far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us\u201d (Psalm 103:12). Wherever we find ourselves today\u2014even in dark seasons and in overwhelming situations\u2014we can rest in Him and rejoice because the gospel is true.<\/p>","share_image_height":"640","day_number":"11","scripture":"Philippians 4:2-9, Matthew 6:25-34, John 14:27-31, Romans 8:5-6","available":true,"ad_banner_name":"","ad_banner_image":false,"ad_banner_url":"","songs":"","key_verse":"","key_verse_reference":"","background_image":false,"background_color":"#FBF7F3","scripture_references":false,"share_image":false,"show_ad":true,"ad_override":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/177"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71612\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}