Verse of the Day

This year my word from the Lord is focus from Hebrews 12:1–2. Today I read this "battle plan" from Philippians 4 (Ava Pennington's One Year Alone with God).

Step 1: Ask God for help to release my anxious thoughts, thankfully acknowledging His grace and mercy:

Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. If you do this, you will experience God's peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6–7 NLT)

Step 2: To prevent anxious thoughts from returning, fill my mind with these things: 

And now, dear brothers and sisters, let me say one more thing as I close this letter. Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. (Philippians 4:8 NLT)

Step 3: Practice Steps 1 & 2 repeatedly until it becomes a habit:

Keep putting into practice all you learned from me and heard from me and saw me doing, and the God of peace will be with you. (Philippians 4:9 NLT)


Still working on Step 3, and I suspect I will until I enter my Savior's presence. However, I will never cease to be amazed at God's timing. Yesterday, during church, I had the random thought that I'd not done a study in Scripture on focusing my thoughts on Jesus. (Random because I'm not sure anything said in Sunday school, morning service, or afternoon service triggered the thought.) Usually I do a study on my word in January, but with the move this year, it slipped my mind. Plus the word focus isn't used, at least not in the translations and paraphrases I'm most familiar with. But the concept is definitely there.

I've started a list of words/topics to search for, but until this morning, I hadn't even thought about this aspect of focusing on the Lord. Now I'm thinking of all sorts of verses and specific passages, such as this in Isaiah 26: You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, whose thoughts are fixed on you! (vs. 3)

Ah . . . two more words: fixed and thoughts. Can't wait to get started. God is so good, so faithful. All the time.