Tag: heart

Three ways to keep your peace…

Peace

Why is keeping your peace so important? What does it mean to keep your peace? What robs you from peace? These are a few questions we can explore and learn from. I began writing this yesterday morning and I have been thinking about how to keep our peace since then.

What is peace? According to the dictionary Peace is, “freedom from disturbance, tranquility 2) a state or period in which there is no war, or a war has ended.”

Looking at peace from ‘freedom from disturbance’ can be said keeping your peace is not allowing the disturbances to get within your mind and heart. Keeping your peace does not suggest that you just be quiet and never speak up. The first way in keeping your peace involves understanding how to live in a state of trusting in God and overcoming personal annoyances.

Trusting God is easier when we are not faced with personal annoyances or outcomes outside our control. Those are the circumstances that can cause us to lose our peace if we are not aware of it. I choose to speak the truth with the Word of God concerning situations. Find a scripture that you know and remind yourself of God’s care and concern for you. Speak it out loud so you can hear it this builds your faith as you go through the disturbances that try to rob your peace.

Tranquility means “the quality or state of being tranquil; calm.” Looking at peace as tranquility clearly is referring to being calm. Being calm under pressure is doable. The second way to keep your peace is submission to the God’s leading, He gives us the grace to handle all types of situations that we are faced with daily. Since we are submitted to Him, we are surrendering our aggravations to His word and ways. This helps us to learn how our reactions can be turned into responses. Once again God addresses issues and speaks up, but His ways are higher than ours He uses the right amount of pressure and directness.

The Hebrew word for peace is Shalom “this word means peace, harmony, wholeness, completeness, prosperity, welfare, and tranquility.” This peace has a deeper depth to the understanding of peace. God’s peace permeates our well being and produces wholeness in spirit, soul and body. Our minds and hearts are connected if we do not have peace of mind, we will not have peace in other areas of our being. Understanding of the word shalom helps us to realize that God is interested in all areas of our lives. The third way to help keep your peace is, understanding that your total well being is important. One aspect of our being can affect other aspects of spirit, soul and body. Remembering this helps one to keep their peace. Sometimes we lose peace because our lives get out of balance. Recognize physically, mentally or emotionally these three areas will affect our lives when they are out of balance. If you’re running on empty, it will finally catch up to you and your peace will be lost. We only get one life and body, so it is important to take care of it.  

For example, when my ankles are painful, I do what is necessary to help relieve the pain such as rest, elevate, ice or put a pain cream on them. When I was younger, I would push myself and make it worse but through age wisdom has taught me to notice and deal with the symptoms. I have learned it’s ok to rest, give myself permission to not over do, and then I stay peaceful.

There are many ways we can lose our peace but if we become aware of them, we can rely on God’s grace, and overcome them, and keep our peace.    

How do you refocus when life is scrambled?

What is your focus on? Our focus may be on all kinds of things from home to careers and all that is in between. But what is going happen when your focus gets blurred due to unforeseen circumstances? That is when we need to refocus. What does refocus mean? It means “to focus again to change the emphasis or direction of.”

In the natural our view might be clouded caused by eye problems. Such as what I’m experiencing, I can see however not so clear in the left eye. I’m facing a cataract and partial corneal transplant surgery next month. So, I must focus to see.    

When things get a bit haywire what do you focus on? When life is scrambled with all kinds of ups and downs how do you keep your focus? I think it depends on what you’re focusing on. Our lives are made up of all kinds of important tasks and people who are involved in them. But to me the most essential focus that helps all the other areas in our lives is God and keeping my focus on Him.

There are many scriptures to help keep your focus clear. When your heart and mind are on the Lord it trains you to keep a clear focus. Keeping your heart and mind clear is most important. When our hearts are right with God and we stay humble and contrite we will keep a clear focus.

How do you focus when life is scrambled? By going back to God letting Him refocus your heart and mind. Laying the cares of the day at His feet and receiving His peace. Getting alone with the Lord is the first step to refocusing. Only God can tell you what is really in your heart. When we come before Him with thanksgiving and praise Him for who He is this will affect your focus.

When we come to the Lord with our cares and concerns without thanksgiving the focus becomes lopsided. But when I turn my eyes on Jesus and thank Him for who He is and for what He has done. Then my focus becomes clearer. A peace settles over me and I can petition my prayers through His focus.

God knows clearer what I need than I know or what others need. Each day has new challenges but everyday our focus can stay clear as we allow God to lead, guide and focus our day.

The Power of Forgiveness

What does forgiveness mean to you? How important is it? What are benefits to forgiveness? These are some of the questions we will answer.

Forgive means: “Stop feeling angry or resentful toward (someone) for an offense, flaw, or mistake; Cancel (a debt)”

Forgiveness means: “the action or process of forgiving or being forgiven.” First with these definitions we see that forgiveness is a process. Pardon deals with the emotion of the offense and the feelings of resentment toward a person who hurt, offended or acted in a manner that we felt hurt by.

How important is forgiveness it is essential to your overall mental health? Unforgiveness plagues the mind and heart. It revolves around a continuous dialogue of thoughts in the mind that wants justice or revenge. But it keeps you locked into the pain, hurt, and negative emotions.

There are no benefits to unforgiveness. Why do we hold on to unforgiveness can only be answered by the person? Everyone gives different reasons, but it is usually the event itself. And the injustice of the hurt and sorrow. But in truth unforgiveness is only hurting us, not the one who hurts us.

Power in forgiveness is a key to unlocking a hurt. Forgiveness does not abolish the offense. It does help you to walk free of the pain and sorrow of the offense. Forgiveness places you in a place of restored peace. When we are unforgiving, we do not have true peace. We may have repressed the hurt, but it always comes back up.

Pain must be expressed, processed, and relieved or it is locked in the recesses of our mind and heart. Therefore, forgiveness is a process. Our minds must give the pain a voice through expressions and the emotions of the hurt is processed and then the words of ‘I forgive you for…’ will flow freely. Then the healing of God can fill the area the pain and sorrow lived, and you can be restored and filled with peace and joy.

Jesus bought forgiveness for us with God, but it also opened the door of empowerment of forgiveness for us to others. The word of God tells us to forgive as we have been forgiven. There have been things in my life that have happened to me without God’s help and healing I would not be the person I am today.

I have seen many different individuals and couples walk through the process of forgiveness and receive the healing it provides. The power of forgiveness lives within each individual choice. Once you choose to forgive ‘someone’ the process starts and then you can be healed of the pain, hurt and sorrow of the offense through forgiveness.