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‘The peace of God…will guard your hearts and minds.’ Philippians 4:7 NIV When you feel anxious and afraid, here are two things that can help: 1) Find a ‘faith friend’. When anxiety grabs your mind, one of the most powerful ways to break the worry spiral is to talk to a ‘faith friend’. When Israel went out to occupy the promised land, here’s what God said to them: ‘Is anyone afraid or fainthearted? Let him go home so that his fellow soldiers will not become disheartened too’ (Deuteronomy 20:8 NIV). Pessimism, fright, and discouragement are contagious. And so is courage! 2) Take action and face your fear. Sermons about how God will take care of you aren’t enough to remove anxiety from your life by themselves. You also need to do certain things, like stepping out in faith and trusting God. The way to get His peace from your head to the rest of your body is to trust Him, to the point where you’re able to face your fears head-on. So, with that in mind, a) meditate on passages like Psalm 23; imagine yourself being shepherded by the Lord through green pastures and led beside still waters, b) talk to your ‘faith friend’ before worry gets a foothold in your mind, c) use a ‘breath prayer’ such as, ‘God, I’m casting all my cares on You,’ d) exercise; physical exercise is a great way to stop excess adrenaline from building up and finding the wrong outlet, e) identify your fear and take even one small step towards confronting it, and f) get enough rest. David said, ‘In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, Lord, make me dwell in safety’ (Psalm 4:8 NIV). Today, give your worries to God!

‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says.’ Revelation 2:11 NKJV You can read the same Scripture at different times, and it’ll speak to you in totally different ways. The Greek philosopher Heraclitus is credited with saying, ‘You never step into the same river twice.’ And you never read the same Bible verse the same way twice. That’s a testament to its heavenly author. And His illumination and revelation of Scripture to you is based on His intimate and unlimited knowledge of your circumstances, your desires, your fears, your past, your personality, and your destiny. But you must take time to listen and cultivate your sensitivity to what He’s saying. There’s a story of a music trainer hired to work with opera singers who couldn’t hit certain notes even though they fell within their vocal range. It was a musical mystery. The trainer did extensive testing on their vocal cords, but he couldn’t find any reason why they couldn’t hit those notes. Then, on a whim, he tested their hearing. And what he discovered was that these opera singers couldn’t sing a note they couldn’t hear. The problem wasn’t singing. The problem was hearing. ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says.’ Until you hear the voice of God, you won’t be able to sing His song, because you’re out of tune with Him. That’s how we get trapped in sinful lifestyles and negative cycles and destructive patterns. But when you open up the Bible and truly hear the voice of God – His loving voice, His affirming voice, His graceful voice, His convicting voice, His authoritative voice, His powerful voice – your life begins to harmonise with the Holy Spirit.

‘Let us hold fast…without wavering…He who promised is faithful.’ Hebrews 10:23 NKJV During the creation process, God counted days based on the previous nights. The Bible doesn’t say, ‘The morning and evening were the first day.’ It says, ‘God called…the evening and the morning…the first day’ (Genesis 1:5 KJV). That means God specialises in bringing light out of darkness – you just have to get through one to get to the other! God told Moses that the angel of death would come at night, and wherever he saw the blood of the lamb on the doorposts, the inhabitants of that house would be saved (see Exodus 12:12-13). In Exodus, we read that God ‘sent a…wind that blew all night until there was dry land…and the Israelites walked through’ (Exodus 14:21-22 CEV). The psalmist wrote, ‘Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning’ (Psalm 30:5 NKJV). The dawn is all the more brilliant because of the darkness that came before it, just as your progress is all the more rewarding when it’s set against a backdrop of pain, gain, and breakthrough. Great mornings come by getting through rough nights. When you see somebody who’s having a great day, chances are you’re looking at somebody who has been through a long night. When you hear them shouting victory, it might be because they’ve spent the night praying and weeping before God. The Bible says, ‘Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise’ (Hebrews 10:23 NLT). Trusting God is more than just wishful thinking. It’s knowing that if He said it, He will do it. It’s realising He doesn’t just know about creation, He knows all about your circumstances too. So, ‘hold fast’.

‘Make sure you understand what the Master wants.’ Ephesians 5:17 MSG To fulfil God’s plan for your life, you need to do these: 1) Map out your day. Plan your time and stick to your plan. Only one out of three people do that. One leadership expert says, ‘It’s…rare…that I get up in the morning wondering what I’ll be doing that day.’ He uses his time in the most efficient and effective way he can. That’s one reason why he’s ended up a leader, and an expert! 2) Keep first things first. Goethe said, ‘Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.’ Most of us don’t get to our most important tasks until mid-afternoon. We complete low-priority tasks first so we will have a sense of accomplishment. That’s not always the best strategy. And if you plan your day but don’t follow through, your results will be the same as those who don’t plan at all. As Dwight Eisenhower observed, ‘Taking first things first…often reduces the most complex human problem to a manageable proportion.’ 3) Be focused but flexible. Expect the unexpected and learn to adapt. Conditions constantly change, and your ways of getting things done need to be flexible enough to adapt to shifting circumstances. 4) Learn to delegate. People tend to fall into two categories: clingers and dumpers. Clingers refuse to let go of anything they think is important, whether or not they’re the best person for the job. Their goal is perfection. Dumpers, on the other hand, are quick to off-load tasks without giving much thought to how well the job gets done. Their goal is to get it off their plate ASAP. Delegating well calls for being wise, secure in who you are, and generous towards others. It also means the job gets done right – and in the end, that’s what you want.

‘By the grace of God I am what I am.’ 1 Corinthians 15:10 NIV There’s a story about a boy who comes home and doesn’t know the pastor is paying a visit to his mum at that moment. He runs into the house, carrying a dead rat, and shouts, ‘Mum, you’ll never guess what. There was a rat running around in the garage. I saw it, threw a stone, and hit it. It just lay there, so I went over and stamped on it. Then I picked it up and hurled it against the wall.’ Then he sees the pastor, and the look on his mum’s face - and realises he’s in trouble. So, he holds the rat up and adds in a pious voice, ‘And then the dear Lord called him home.’ That’s the kind of talk people slip into when they want to hide their flaws and appear more ‘spiritual’. The old hymn ‘Just as I Am, Without One Plea’ is about taking off the mask and knowing that God loves you in spite of your problems. If there was a true ‘just as I am’ church where people could bring their baggage and brokenness, if there was a group where everyone was loved and no one faked it, we couldn’t make enough room for them inside the building. Paul acknowledged that sometimes he acted like Dr Jekyll, other times like Mr Hyde. He talked of the times when he wanted to do good but evil took over. But he refused to give up because he realised he was a work in progress. ‘I…do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect’ (vv. 9-10 NIV).