Power Of Peace That Passes The Test

Key Scripture:   “And the peace of God which passes all understanding will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:7

Power Point:

     I’m BA-ACK!  I hope you noticed I was gone.  I know you’ve probably heard the phrase, “It was the best of times, and it was the worst of times.” (Charles Dickens, “Tale Of Two Cities”.) The last two weeks have been a little of both for me.

     Two weeks ago, my friend Julie and her husband David and I made our way to Anaheim, California to attend a Graham Cooke conference.  We were all very excited. The title of the conference was “Mind Of A Saint, combining the heart of the Father with the mind of Jesus.”  The conference began on Thursday and it was fulfilling every promise. Then on Friday night, following dinner, my stomach began to hurt really badly.  I had to leave the conference and go to my hotel room where I took every antacid known to man, with little success.  It was definitely the worst of times.  During the night my chest was tight, my shoulders were painful and I even began to think I might be having a heart attack.  During the weeks leading up to the conference, the Lord had really had me focusing on worship. As I look back over those weeks, I realize that He was giving me plenty of “food for thought”.  I don’t think I have ever sensed the presence and peace of the Lord so strongly. Ah, those were the best of times!

     I decided I would do what I knew to do.  I began declaring God’s promises to me and I began playing my worship songs. I have to admit that fear was having a party in my head. I decided that if the devil was going to try to take me out, I was going to make him sorry! He was going to have to listen to me

thanking God for His faithfulness and praising Him with everything I had.  So I did. Surviving the night was a blessing and the next morning when I saw David, I told him what had been going on.  He immediately prayed for me and I immediately felt better.  Until that night.  Same story. Same song. Except that the next day was Sunday and we were going to have to head home. About 2 in the morning I put on my worship music and told the Lord that I simply could not get back to Atlanta without His help.  Would He?  Please? He did!  From that moment until Monday morning, I had no pain. Ah. The best of times.

     I’ll make the final part of the story a bit briefer!  After following up with doctors it was decided that I had a very bad gall bladder -which didn’t like me anymore.  I had lost my fondness for it as well and on that Thursday was glad to say good-bye to it. Today marks the one-week mark and I am so blessed to be able to say that God’s peace protected me every step of the way.  I had done my homework and God was faithful to help me. One thing He had told me in those preceding weeks was that I needed to learn to push past the obstacles in my path and push into peace.  I needed to learn to push past anger and push into peace.  I needed to learn to push past fear, straight into the peace of God, which passes all understanding.

I have had plenty of time to practice that in these last two weeks, and I am grateful to say, it is definitely not only possible but it is a glorious option.

     I hope your last two weeks have been “the best of times”, but in case you’re going through a few of “the worst of times”, let me encourage you to keep pushing past your problem and push into all that God wants to be for you in your situation. When you push into the mind of Christ, you will also encounter the mind and the heart of your heavenly Father. When you know what Jesus knows about Him, and how important you are to Him, it will change everything. Pushing past, and pushing through, and pushing in to peace are what Jesus did. He passed the tests. And He reaped the reward. We can too!

Power Thought:

If there is anything praiseworthy-think about it! And think about it, and think about it and…