AN INVITATION

  A 21 day Prayer and Fasting Devotional (Nov. 1-21, 2023)

Day 6

You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.

Isaiah 26:3 ESV

Today, you and I face our own dark nights—times when following the Lord in obedience leads us into a storm. It’s easy to misinterpret dark, stormy seasons of our lives as punishment or rebuke, but just before Peter walked on the water, the Bible says Jesus “made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side” (v. 22). Maybe the storms we walk through are less about limitation and more an invitation—an open door into a new, greater reality with Jesus. As we consider this invitation, it should be noted it is accompanied by a peace that is only known “beyond understanding.” The end of our ability to comprehend is not the end of God’s ability to carry on in power. When we find ourselves facing situations we’ve never walked through and trials like oceans in our way, peace is both the guide and the guard for our hearts and minds.

Merriam-Webster defines peace as “freedom from disquieting or oppressive thoughts or emotions.”* According to Philippians 4:7, God’s peace acts like a shield. It stands in the way of the attacks of the enemy when he tries to assault our minds with anxiety and worry for the future. Against all the natural evidence we might muster up as we look at the storm in front of us, peace comes like a heavenly shield through the clarity and calmness of trust.

You see, peace is intimately interwoven with trust. How can we face a difficult time in our lives like the uncertainty and pain of losing a loved one or the difficulty of changing seasons and still have any sense of peace at all? Peace comes because we trust in God’s power, presence, and proficiency in working it all out for good. He’s currently working on whatever is burdening you, and He doesn’t need any help finishing the job.

Just as Peter stood on the precipice of one reality, hearing an invitation into another, you and I stand today at the edge of whatever issue is facing us with the invitation to trust God and take Him at His word. As we trust Him, we’ll experience that miraculous feeling of walking on the waves of faith and trust as we journey on toward the prize of Jesus.

*Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, s.v. “peace,” accessed September 1, 2022, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/peace.

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Prayer

God, we honor Your great power over all things. We have witnessed Your authority to speak to the wind and waves of our lives and have seen them obey Your command to be still. Today, until You speak those words and bring whatever is facing us to stillness, teach us to trust You and Your process. You are worthy to be praised and worthy to be trusted. We put all our hope in You alone. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Activation

• Imagine a hand that’s been balled into a fist. As an act of your will, now picture that hand opening up as you release every tie to worry, anxiety, fear, unbelief, and the stress that you’ve been gripping so tightly. See the cords of those negative things falling like strings through your fingertips, as you raise your eyes and hands to reach again towards Jesus.

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For Further Study

(just click the following verses to read it)

Philippians 4:6–7John 14:27John 16:33

Prepared and edited by:

Armando P. Mariano

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