Stress to Peace

Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread.

Our reading, titled Stress to Peace, was written by Katerra Patton. Moving ranks as one of the biggest stressors in life. We moved to our current home after I'd lived in my previous one for nearly 20 years. I'd lived alone in that first home for eight years before I got married. Then, my husband moved in, along with all his things. Later, we added a child, and that meant even more stuff. Our moving day to the new house wasn't without incident. Five minutes before the movers arrived, I was still finishing up a book manuscript, and the new home had several sets of stairs, so it took double the time and twice as many movers as planned.

But I wasn't feeling stressed out about the events of that day. Then, it hit me. I'd spent many hours finishing writing a book, one chock full with scripture and biblical concepts. By God's grace, I'd been poring over the Bible, praying and writing to meet my deadline. So, I believe the key was my immersion in scripture and in prayer. Paul wrote in Philippians 4, Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. When we pray and rejoice in God, we refocus our mind from the problem to our provider.

We may be asking God to help us with a stressor, but we're also connecting with Him, which can provide a peace which transcends all understanding. Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Philippians chapter 4 verses 4 through 8. Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again.

Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things. Let's pray.

Provider and protector, help us give all our concerns over to you. Fill us with your peace as we navigate our lives and help us trust you to meet even our deepest needs. Thank you, Lord. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening today. My name is Toni Collier and today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.