If there is anything worthwhile, meditate on it

Do not be anxious about anything. Instead, in every situation, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, tell your requests to God. 4:7 And the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds 5 in Christ Jesus.
4:8 Finally, brothers and sisters, 6 whatever is true, whatever is worthy of respect, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if something is excellent or praiseworthy, think about these things. 4:9 And what you learned and received and heard and saw in me, do these things. And the God of peace will be with you.

If there is one thing that we in the blessed flatlands of Indiana take for granted, it is peace. Except for those in Gary and maybe in parts of Indy, people rarely worry about being murdered and shot when walking down the street. Perhaps this is why many were so quick to support the Iraq war, and perhaps still do; for we don't see the human impact of it in our face, merely the economic one. When we see that millions are being killed in the name of religion, this is not the work of the Lord's hand, for we worship a God of peace, not of confusion (I Corinthians 14:33).

In today's small group we performed skits and discussed the how, what and why's of redemption. We shared a lot of laughs and I especially like how one group chose to use the passage "Seek and ye shall find" to explain the way one can be redeemed. We also began to discuss the role of Christianity in the world, and how accountable Christians should be for the state of the world's apparent decay. While I believe we should hold ourselves as a body largely responsible, for it is not supposed to be us at work, but the power of God, only one thing I know for certain: pointing our fingers does nothing and only serves to tear us away from the humility we need now more than ever. Christ is the only hope we have, and to take our eyes away from Him is to ignore the 'peace that is beyond all understanding'. Jesus is coming back, and that is where our meditations should lie!

This week seemed super short and reminds me how much more I need to be meditating on the glory of God to get me through the day. Many Christians will harden their hearts as times grow more distressing, and we must not let that happen. Let that be our request unto the Lord; that our thanks will not diminish! We have to keep believing that God's love is enough, for we don't need to wait until judgement day to declare its Truth!