Rely not on your self will, ask for God’s!
Rely not on your self control, ask for God’s!
Rely not on your patience, ask for God’s!
Rely not on your words, ask for God’s!
Rely not on your actions, ask for God’s!
Rely not on your decisions, ask for God’s!
Rely not on your plans, ask for God’s!
Rely not on your thoughts, ask for God’s!
Rely not on your views, ask for God’s!
If I had read this prior to experiencing God’s peace, I would have thought: “Yeah this is great and all, but God doesn’t talk to me directly. I need to make a move now. I know God doesn’t call me to sit around and do nothing while I wait on him.”
Those actions I took, outside of God’s will, were leading to all my anxious thoughts. I would fall into depression as a result of these self lead decisions. I would struggle with consequences resulting from actions I took on my own.
But now I use God’s deep peace within me as influence over everything in my life. If I do not feel peace with a decision, I wait. The wait is coupled with God’s peace. This is the crazy faith part, I could not explain this before I experienced it.
Before, I experience God’s peace I would reading these words in my Bible:
”Trust in the Lord your God.
You shall have no other gods before me.
Thou shall not covet.
The Lord is my strength and my shield.
My heart trusts in him, and I am helped.”
But I did not understand how to gain God’s peace or put my trust in the Lord. When I looked, the answers I found were lacking. Nothing worked, and I felt like I was missing a big piece to “being a Christian”. Then I found these tools.
My passion is to lay out these tools for everyone to use. Tools, that with God’s guidance, will lead you back to his peace.
First, give God all your red flags. I will try to be specific by giving examples of my red flags. This list below is a starting point. Let God lead you to find your personal red flags.
My red flags:
Overthinking, the same thoughts that keep coming up
Planning
Expecting God to give me the answer
Insecure thoughts
Desire to take over a situation
Preparing a defense for myself
Controlling other family members actions
Isolating my problems
Distracting myself, not being able to sit in quiet
Avoiding reading my bible
A lot of these behavior patterns were ingrained in me from childhood. Before I discovered these tools, I did not know that most of these were a problem. This is why I say this is hard work. Things in our past dictate how we approach our present situations.
I pray for wisdom and courage as you seek to find some of your red flags today.