Sunday Inspiration: Life and Peace

We've been doing a lot of living and a teeny tiny bit of sleeping over here.

I have a really, really tough time finding time during the day to sit down and read my Bible.

But I just figured this out.

I can listen to the Bible on BibleGateway

I can listen while I paint, while I cook,

while clean up 100 million little toys around the house.

And while it doesn't replace sitting down and being still,

it still gives me good input.

It retrains my thoughts.

And as I am learning,

my thoughts determine my life.

My thoughts either make or break my day.

And days equals weeks and months and years and a lifetime.

And if I'm not filling up my thoughts on the truth of what God says about me,

then, by default, I'm filling up on what the world says about me.

And it gets ugly.

So I've been loving Romans 8.

I've read it 100 times but never like this:

1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

STOP! Stop condemning and comparing myself.

There is no  condemnation. That is not of God. That's a lie.

2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life

has set you free from the law of sin and death.

only the Holy Spirit can give me life and set me free.

That's it.

3 For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh,
God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.
And so he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement
of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh

but according to the Spirit.

Stop! I can't do this on my own. 

I can't will myself to be good enough, or kind enough, or clean enough.

I'm powerless. Stop trying so hard. God has already done it.

I just need to ask the holy spirit for help to come

& do it for me, through me, every single day.

So I can live by the spirit, and not by my flesh.

5 Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires;

but those who live in accordance with the Spirit

have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.

6 The mind governed by the flesh is death, but

the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.

Life and peace.

That's what I want. That's what I need.

I keep praying for the peace that surpasses all understanding

and trying to get it in my own strength.

But I can't do it. I don't even know "what the spirit desires".

I need his holy spirit in me to give me life and peace

and to set my mind on what it desires.

So, that's where I'm at today.

With help from a really great counselor.

 Happy Sunday bloggy friends.

May you be filled with

life and peace today.