Filled: A Devotional to Fill Your Life With an Abundance of Hope, Peace, Joy & LoveSample

Day 3: Putting Peace on Autopilot

All of us have highs, all of us have lows. Life is often the kind of roller coaster where you have highs and lows all day long, right? Sometimes you can have seasons of highs, sometimes you can have days with highs AND lows. We might ask ourselves, “God, where’d you go?” Or we feel like, “Thank you, God.” We’re overwhelmed with gratitude.

I don’t know about you, but when you read the news and try balancing it with what’s going on in your own life, your own budgets, your own families, your mind and heart really are at a civil war with each other. Fear can become your default setting. I’m just on autopilot when it comes to fear and anxiety. Putting my hope in the Lord as the Psalmist talks about actually requires effort. It takes a step for my mind to go from, “I’m feeling afraid,” to “I need to put my hope in you.”

My mind does not go toward peace on autopilot. I wish it did. I think the more that you and I stay in the Word, the more we will be infused with joy, love, hope and peace. The more you read God’s Word, the more you will find His presence and be able to sense it.

He’s always with us. He never leaves us, but so often we are not in tune with His presence because we’re so in tune with what’s wrong instead. And there is a lot wrong in the world right now.

The Psalmist says, “I put my hope in you.” That’s requiring an action from us. We have to take action, ditch the autopilot and say, “No, I’m choosing to put my hope in Jesus.” How do we actually make that happen?

When worship music is on, it’s really hard to feel afraid and worried. When you are singing to God, it’s hard not to feel peace. Listen to worship music. Surround yourself with music that lifts you up. Also, pray. Sometimes we have to get quiet to sense His presence. When you get quiet, you can sense that He’s right there. He’s closer than your next breath. It can be hard in the loud, noisy world to slow down and get quiet, but practice it. It is worth letting yourself learn to seek peace first.

PRAYER: Lord, I want to lean on you and trust in you. Help me to seek peace first and put fear and anxiety on the back burner. I know that’s what you want for me, Lord.

REFLECTION: Where can you find an area in your life that allows you to have that time to be quiet with God. Do you need to find a place in the house? Practice those moments of quiet and really seek to feel his presence.