Sound Mind Set

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 I trust him. (NLT) When we struggle, when we are trying to find our way through days filled with trouble, knowing that God is the shelter where we can find rest and the refuge where we can find safety is a huge comfort and encouragement. But the key is in the final words: He is my God and I trust Him.Listen now to verses 14-16 …The Lord says, “I will rescue those who love me. I will protect those who trust in my name. When they call on me, I will answer; I will be with them in trouble. I will rescue and honor them. I will reward them with a long life and give them my salvation.”When trouble lands on your doorstep, what is your first thought? Your first thought. Is it, how am I going to fix this? Why is this happening to me?One of the ways we can know we are growing in our faith is when our first thought is to invite God to work. To pray, “Lord, rescue me, protect me, answer me. I need to hear from You.”I want to encourage you to use Psalm 91 as a prayer for you and your kids. Words like these will help you look to God first when darkness falls.Let’s pray together: “Heavenly Father, You are my Shelter, my Refuge, my Place of safety. My Rescue. My Protector. My answer. As above, so below.”

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 can never extinguish it. (NLT) If you walk into a well-lit room at night to go to sleep, you don’t think, “I need to turn on the darkness.” No. You think, “I need to turn off the light.” Only the absence of light creates darkness. Even a candle lit on a dark night can be seen for miles.Next, listen to Jesus’ words further down in John 8:12 … Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.”When you walk through darkness in your life, look for how you can let light in. The only way you can affect the darkness is by allowing in light.Where do you need “the light that leads to life” today? Pray and ask Jesus to be that in your life. Remember our first passage—"the darkness can never extinguish it.”Let’s pray together: “Heavenly Father, there is so much darkness today all over. Help me to remember You are the Light, my Light, to dispel the darkness and nothing can put that out. As above, so below.”

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 my head. I have lost all courage. Please, Lord, rescue me! Come quickly, Lord, and help me. (NLT) Did you notice how brutally honest David was with God? He held nothing back. In fact, he asked God to hold nothing back to help him. But he was also transparent about his own disobedience and need.As is often the case, the words of The Message Bible get a bit more straightforward … Now God, don’t hold out on me, don’t hold back your passion. Your love and truth are all that keeps me together. When troubles ganged up on me, a mob of sins past counting, I was so swamped by guilt. I couldn’t see my way clear. More guilt in my heart than hair on my head, so heavy the guilt that my heart gave out. Soften up, God, and intervene; hurry and get me some help, Who is the one friend you have that you can say anything at all and know you won’t be judged?Have you ever considered that is the kind of honesty that God welcomes from you when life is really hard? Remember—unlike a close friend, you aren’t telling Him anything He doesn’t already know.When darkness falls on your heart, pick a Psalm and read it out loud. Let the words become your own.Let’s pray together: “Heavenly Father, keep reminding me that I can say anything to You. Lead me to the words in Psalms that can best reflect my heart when I struggle, and use the words to pray. As above, so below.”

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.Listen to verses 1-6 …Then Job replied to the Lord: “I know that you can do anything, and no one can stop you. You asked, ‘Who is this that questions my wisdom with such ignorance?’ It is I—and I was talking about things I knew nothing about, things far too wonderful for me. You said, ‘Listen and I will speak! I have some questions for you, and you must answer them.’ I had only heard about you before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes. I take back everything I said, and I sit in dust and ashes to show my repentance.” (NLT) Throughout our lives, God gives blessings while He allows suffering. He alone decides what we need, when we need it, and as a good Father, what will keep us close to Him day by day.Listen now to this same passage in The Message Bible … Job answered God: “I’m convinced: You can do anything and everything. Nothing and no one can upset your plans. You asked, ‘Who is this muddying the water, ignorantly confusing the issue, second-guessing my purposes?’ I admit it. I was the one. I babbled on about things far beyond me, made small talk about wonders way over my head. You told me, ‘Listen, and let me do the talking. Let me ask the questions. You give the answers.’ I admit I once lived by rumors of you; now I have it all firsthand—from my own eyes and ears! I’m sorry—forgive me. I’ll never do that again, I promise! I’ll never again live on crusts of hearsay, crumbs of rumor.”How do you tend to respond when hard things happen in your life? Maybe here we go again? Why me, Lord? I’ll just put my head down and get through this?Whether blessing or hardship, a great prayer to pray is: God, show me what You are doing. How do you want me to respond to this?What we can learn from Job’s suffering and his response is that God wants us to have a first-hand experience with Him, not live off of rumors or someone else’s experience. That’s what a close relationship is all about.Let’s pray together: “Heavenly Father, I have to admit I want all blessing and no suffering. Yet, I know I tend to grow the most when things get tough. Help me to look for how I can know You first-hand, like a Father to His child. As above, so below.”

2 Timothy 1:8-10 …So never be ashamed to tell others about our Lord. … For God saved us and called us to live a holy life. He did this, not because we deserved it, but because that was his plan from before the beginning of time—to show us his grace through Christ Jesus. And now he has made all of this plain to us by the appearing of Christ Jesus, our Savior. He broke the power of death and illuminated the way to life and immortality through the Good News. (NLT) One of the reasons we must fully understand and receive God’s grace is so we can be a reflection of His grace. We live in a day when people are desperately searching for grace and mercy. Simply showing grace out of an overflow of our hearts can attract people to want to know what creates this in our lives.Listen to this passage in The Message Bible … So don’t be embarrassed to speak up for our Master. … We can only keep on going, after all, by the power of God, who first saved us and then called us to this holy work. We had nothing to do with it. It was all his idea, a gift prepared for us in Jesus long before we knew anything about it. But we know it now. Since the appearance of our Savior, nothing could be plainer: death defeated, life vindicated in a steady blaze of light, all through the work of Jesus.Who in your life is on a desperate search for grace?Could it be that this week was all about you coming to a deeper understanding of God’s grace so you can share that grace with those you know?And never forget—Your salvation is about what Christ has done, not what You can do for Him. And His grace is all you need for His power to be made strong in You through your weakness.Let’s pray together: “Heavenly Father, I surrender my weakness to You. Make me strong in Your grace. Help me to share what You have done in me and for me with those who need You. As above, so below.”

There is a passage in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian church where he talks about what he called his “thorn in the flesh.” There’s a powerful lesson for us about grace in what he shared.Listen to 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 …… to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud. Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (NLT) We are never told what Paul’s thorn is. Probably so we can easily apply this truth to whatever issue plagues our own lives.Paul said that he asked God three times to take it away and God repeated the same phrase each time. And what did God tell Paul he needed? Grace. Why? So God’s strong power could be shown in Paul’s weakness. And there is no denying that happened as we read his letters to the churches.Listen once again to part of today’s passage in The Message Bible … I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations. Satan’s angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty! At first I didn’t think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, and then he told me, My grace is enough; it’s all you need.My strength comes into its own in your weakness. Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ’s strength moving in on my weakness.What is your thorn? What creates limitations in you? What have you begged God to get rid of?How can you apply God’s answer to your life: “My grace is enough. It’s all you need.”?How can you take your attention off the problem and put it on Christ?Let’s pray together: “Father, this is a tough one. I need Your help to accept those things in my life that You choose for me to surrender to You and trust in Your grace to carry me. As above, so below.”

Romans 5:18-21 …Yes, Adam’s one sin brings condemnation for everyone, but Christ’s one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone. Because one person disobeyed God, many became sinners. But because one other person obeyed God, many will be made righteous. God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant. So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God’s wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (NLT) Depending on how we were brought up and what we have been taught about God, we must all come to the place of understanding that Scripture is the bottom line of what we should believe and the foundation of what we should build our lives upon. We have to become responsible for what we believe and what we will teach our children—based on our own beliefs, not anyone else’s. The concept of grace is such an important pillar of that personal faith.Here’s a tough question for you … do you think your own life is ruled more by law or by grace?Is your faith based on what you do for Jesus or what Jesus has done for you?Remember—any questions we ask here are only to help you honestly evaluate where you are, and by comparing to Scripture, ask if is there is any part of your belief that You need to hand over to God?Let’s pray together: “Heavenly Father, if there is anything I believe about You that is not right and not fair to You, I invite You to teach me Your ways through Your Word. As above, so below.”

Focusing on God’s grace, listen to Romans 3:23-28 … For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. … God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he makes sinners right in his sight when they believe in Jesus. Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith. So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law. (NLT) Can you hear the connection between today’s passage and yesterday’s? The only way we are made right with God is through a relationship with Jesus. Once again, we believe that what God says He has done for us is true. Jesus paid the penalty for sin that we could never pay.Listen to verses 22 thru 24 in The Message Bible … The God-setting-things-right that we read about has become Jesus-setting-things-right for us. And not only for us, but for everyone who believes in him. For there is no difference between us and them in this. Since we’ve compiled this long and sorry record as sinners (both us and them) and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us, God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ.Is there anything you could possibly do today to quote-unquote deserve your salvation?Do you view what God has done for you as His gift to you?We are free to become what God designed us to be because of Jesus. We pray you really allow that truth to sink in and take it as your own this week.Let’s pray together: “Heavenly Father, forgive me when I don’t believe what You can do in me because of things I have done. Help me to trust You, to believe You, and to live out what You have planned for me. As above, so below.”

God’s grace … the apostle Paul had much to say on this topic because it is so crucial for us all to understand as Christ-followers.Listen to Ephesians 2:4-9 …But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus. God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. (NLT) How did Paul say we are saved? By working hard to do good? By trying hard to not do anything wrong? No, “only by God’s grace.”Do you tend to mix your own behavior into your salvation? So many people do.But what did Paul say was the only action we need to take? “God saved you by His grace … when you believed.”Listen to verses 7 thru 9 in The Message Bible … Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! We don’t play the major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving.Do you have any past religious beliefs or baggage that taught you somehow you can go in and out of God’s salvation by your behavior on any given day? If that were true, then our salvation would be somewhat up to us, right? Paul is clear it is only up to God … after we believe. Trust.Here’s a question for your heart … do you think there is anything you can do to make God love you any more? Or any less? This week on grace is all about understanding the amazing truth that He cannot possibly love you more than He does right now.Let’s pray together: “Heavenly Father, thank You that all You want is for me to believe and trust You. I am grateful my salvation is not dependent on my behavior and that You will never love me any more or any less than You do right now. As above, so below.”

Today, our Scripture is taken from Romans 15:1-13 … We who are strong must be considerate of those who are sensitive …. We must not just please ourselves. We should help others do what is right and build them up in the Lord. For even Christ didn’t live to please himself. … May God, who gives this patience and encouragement, help you live in complete harmony with each other, as is fitting for followers of Christ Jesus. Then all of you can join together with one voice, giving praise and glory to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, accept each other just as Christ has accepted you so that God will be given glory. … I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. (NLT) Isn’t it interesting that no matter how much we have been hurt, how much we distrust, how guarded we may try to be, when we take our eyes off ourselves and fully focus on meeting someone else’s needs, somehow the world seems right for a few minutes?That’s because we weren’t designed to be hurt or to hurt, but to help, to serve. We weren’t designed to distrust, but to trust. We weren’t designed to focus on our own needs, but to help others.When we choose to live in community the way this week’s Scripture passages have encouraged us to do, we line up with our original design because Christ offers that opportunity.Listen to this passage in The Message Bible … Those of us who are strong and able in the faith need to step in and lend a hand to those who falter, and not just do what is most convenient for us. Strength is for service, not status. Each one of us needs to look after the good of the people around us, asking ourselves, “How can I help?” That’s exactly what Jesus did. He didn’t make it easy for himself by avoiding people’s troubles, but waded right in and helped out. … God wants the combination of his steady, constant calling and warm, personal counsel in Scripture to come to characterize us, keeping us alert for whatever he will do next. May our dependably steady and warmly personal God develop maturity in you so that you get along with each other as well as Jesus gets along with us all. Then we’ll be a choir—not our voices only, but our very lives singing in harmony in a stunning anthem to the God and Father of our Master Jesus! So reach out and welcome one another to God’s glory. Jesus did it; now you do it! … May the God of hope fill you up with joy, fill you up with peace, so that your believing lives, filled with the life-giving energy of the Holy Spirit, will brim over with hope!In your community, where do you need to step in and lend a hand?Who do you need to ask, “How can I help?”Where does your life need to sing in harmony with others in an anthem for God’s glory?Let’s pray together: “Heavenly Father, help me to expand my community to who I need and who needs me. Help me to receive the help I need while giving my help to whom it’s needed. Help me to find harmony with those You want me to worship with. As above, so below.”