Sound Mind Set

(Philippians 4:6-7 NLT) Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. Nothing invades and high-jacks our minds and threatens our mental health like worry. Today’s verse tells...

(Proverbs 14:30 MSG) A sound mind makes for a robust body, but runaway emotions corrode the bones. We all understand more than ever today how our thoughts can affect our over-all health—positively or negatively. Our minds drive our motives, attitudes, emotions, and ultimately our actions. The proper balance of our emotional expression is crucial to our daily peace in both mind and heart. Name the...

(2 Corinthians 13:11 NIV) Brothers and sisters, rejoice! Strive for full restoration, encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you. One of the most important aspects of personal peace and a clear mind is unity and harmony in our relationships. The Apostle Paul promised that when we do all we can to keep our connections to others clean and rig...

(2 Timothy 1:7 NKJV) For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. While the world around us promotes fear and the power to control others, God provides faith, love, and the power of self-control. His Spirit offers us a kind heart and a sound mind ushering His peace to saturate our lives. Those qualities can then become blessings to those around us. What...

Jesus’ words of promise in John 14:27-28: “I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid. Remember what I told you: I am going away, but I will come back to you again.” Jesus offers you a gift not of this world that can only be found in Him. His heavenly peace for your mind and heart can overcome any tempo...

Isaiah 26:3-4 encourages: You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you! Trust in the Lord always, for the Lord God is the eternal Rock. You know that on any given day, where you place your trust, where your thoughts tend to go, determines your level of peace. Isaiah offers that the only “perfect peace” can be found in surrendering your thoughts to the et...

David writes in Psalm 29:11: The Lord gives his people strength. The Lord blesses them with peace. In God’s kingdom, strength and peace work in unison. That is why you sense a quiet, calming reassurance when His peace enters your racing mind and struggling heart. What place of weakness today needs His strength? What struggle needs His peace? Listen to the passage again from the Message Bible The L...

Listen to David’s closing words in Psalm 4, verse 8: In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, O Lord, will keep me safe. David had many days and nights where his enemies were stalking, seeking to harm him. Living under threat, confessing that he would fully depend on God to protect him while he slept in peace was a strong statement of faith. Is there a situation in your life right now th...

Jesus said in John 16:32-33: “Yet I am not alone because the Father is with me. I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” In Christ, you are never alone. There will always be troubles, trials, and sorrows here on earth, but in and through everything you experience, Jesus is the...

Our final passage for this week comes from Jesus, where He again promises peace as only He can give. Listen to John 14:24-28 … Remember, my words are not my own. What I am telling you is from the Father who sent me.  I am telling you these things now while I am still with you. But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will...

Today, once again we will focus on just one verse … Matthew 5:9 … God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of God. (NLT) In this world of war, trouble, and conflict, we realize peace never comes easy. Sin causes peace to be elusive. So to get peace, to be at peace, is going to take some work, some effort on our part. Yes, God’s brand of peace is a gift from Him, b...

Today, we will focus on one simple and single verse … Listen to Proverbs 29:17 … Discipline your children, and they will give you peace of mind and will make your heart glad. (NLT) In our western culture, we tend to always associate discipline only with punishment. But the true definition and connotation of discipline is structure, form, parameters, guardrails. Yes, punishment and consequences are...

Listen to Psalm 95:1-7 … Come, let us sing to the Lord! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come to him with thanksgiving. Let us sing psalms of praise to him. For the Lord is a great God, a great King above all gods. He holds in his hands the depths of the earth and the mightiest mountains. The sea belongs to him, for he made it. His hands formed the dry land, too. Come, le...

We all know we live in a chaotic world filled with noise coming from all directions. We know that God ordained and blessed the family as the first union and community. So, for ourselves and our kids we need to take every step possible to make our homes into a sanctuary where God’s presence and peace are welcome and manifested. Let’s start this week with a very familiar passage. Let’s take the word...

Our final passage for this week is a familiar one, but has so many great applications for our lives to encourage us to seize the day … Philippians 3:12-16 … I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it...

Our Scripture today is Colossians 3:12-16 … Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together i...

Our own minds, along with the words of the Accuser, are going to constantly try to bring the past back up, acting as if it is today’s headlines. The more we press into the Lord and His love, the less this will occur, and the more we can deal with it in health. Listen to Psalm 85:7-10 … Show us your unfailing love, O Lord, and grant us your salvation. I listen carefully to what God the Lord is sayi...

To make peace with our past, we have to understand that peace will always be a choice. Often a daily choice. Listen to the spirit of Philippians 4:6-7 … 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. (NL...

To make peace with our past, the very first step, is to first, forgive ourselves and next, and for some of us this can be a really tough one, to forgive others. Essentially, we need to clean house of all unforgiveness. If we don’t let go, the past is going to keep haunting us because we are giving it the power to stay current, which then hinders our future. A great place to start is with Jesus’ ow...

Luke 22:39-42 … Then, accompanied by the disciples, Jesus left the upstairs room and went as usual to the Mount of Olives. There he told them, “Pray that you will not give in to temptation.” He walked away, about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, “Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” (NLT) For most of us,...

Psalm 91 is one of the most powerful chapters in the Bible for asking God’s protection and provision when troubles come. There is a hopeful tone in the words that cut through the darkness. Listen to verses 1 and 2 … Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty. This I declare about the Lord: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; he is my God, and...

Today, our passage is about Jesus in John 1:1-5 … In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness ca...

When we are walking through dark days, reading Scripture and praying Scripture can be very comforting, especially David’s words in the Psalms. Listen to Psalm 40:11-13 … Lord, don’t hold back your tender mercies from me. Let your unfailing love and faithfulness always protect me. For troubles surround me—too many to count! My sins pile up so high I can’t see my way out. They outnumber the hairs on...

When we think of someone in the Bible who experienced dark times, Job has to be near the top of the list. Because he was the most righteous man on the earth in his day, the enemy wiped out his family, his livelihood, and even threatened his health. But when we fast-forward to chapter 42 after many chapters of questions and discussions, we find an amazing revelation as a response to his suffering....