Today you’re going to be faced with lots of choices and decisions. What will you base those decisions on? Coach Justus’ spiritual work out plan for the day is all about recognizing and exercising God’s peace in all you do!
In Tracing His Promise, Donna Amidon, one of Back to the Bible’s Spiritual Fitness Coaches, invites you on a transformative journey through twenty-five key stories that reveal the intricate tapestry of God’s redemptive plan. Discover the presence of Jesus throughout the entire Bible, even in unexpected corners of the Old Testament! With engaging discussion questions, captivating artwork, and printable ornaments for an enriching Advent activity, you’ll be equipped for family, group, or personal study.
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Hi, I'm Justice Copinger, and today I want to talk about what it means to recognize and exercise God's peace in all we do. Did you know that as humans, we make as many as 35,000 decisions every day? That's roughly 2,000 decisions every hour we're awake. Now, the majority of those decisions are incredibly small, and we don't even notice that we're making them. But what affects how we make those decisions? Your heart is a lot like a compass, guiding you to your deepest desires, pointing you to where your north is. Whatever your heart is full of is the direction you'll go, and that affects your everyday decisions, and that's a lot of decisions. As followers of Christ, how can we grow spiritually every day so that our true north is pointing towards Christ? As the Apostle Paul is wrapping up a section in his letter to the Colossians, where he is encouraging them to grow spiritually, he says this, "Let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts, for as members of one body you are called to live in peace, and always be thankful." According to this verse, the peace that comes from Christ needs to be the foundation for everything else that our life is built on, because as followers of Jesus, we are to be a people who live according to the ways of peace. What does it mean then to allow the peace of Christ to rule in our hearts? Verses 16 and 17 say, "Let the message about Christ and all its richness fill your lives, teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives, sing Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts, and whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father." Letting the peace of Christ rule in our hearts is allowing the freedom that comes from Christ to be the reason for why we do everything that we do. The incredible richness of Christ does not need to simply be a piece of who we are. It needs to be the fullness of our lives, and that results in everything we do and everything we say to be filled with thankfulness for God. It's interesting that Paul seems to randomly say and always be thankful at the end of verse 15. He says the same thing at the end of verse 17 as well, but Paul's reasoning with this is not random at all. It's because peace and thankfulness go hand in hand. I don't know about you, but the days when I'm less thankful and I feel bitter, I have a lot less peace that day as well, and that's not a coincidence. In order to let the peace of Christ fill our hearts, we need to choose thanksgiving and gratitude, choosing joy blocks off bitterness and allows space for Christ's peace to enter our hearts and impact our lives. Today, you're going to be faced with a lot of choices and make a lot of decisions. So here's your challenge. As you make those decisions, take a step back and remember that everything you're doing today is representing who Christ is. He has filled you with his peace and love, and now it's your turn to go and be that peace and love everywhere you go. How do you plan to do that? That's your challenge. Now go and win today. [MUSIC PLAYING] [BLANK_AUDIO]
