We have made it to the last post in my four part series on moving toward peace. I am so glad you were able to join me for this series, and I am hoping you have one thing you are taking from this series. Let’s wrap up with verse 9.

Philippians 4:9 – “Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.”

Whew…there is so much packed into these six verses. When I began writing about this section of scripture, I thought it would be one blog post, but as you can see it quickly became a series of posts. Written all of those years ago, God’s Word is still applicable today and until the end of time. Here is verse 9 Paul instructs us to actually put these principles and ideas into practice. We know from James 1:22 that we aren’t just to read the words of God, but to be doers of the Word. Paul says, do these things AND (there’s that word again) we will have the peace of God.

Practical application: I am speaking to myself here in all of these practical application sections. I am not perfect and I don’t do this perfectly every day. However, I have grown so much over the years and this has shown up in my life in the reduction of anxiety and need for control. Six days our of seven or so, I have a set time with God. I am in His Word, writing out my gratitude and prayer requests, praising him, finding joy among the struggle and choosing my thinking. It’s not easy everyday and some days I have to do it even when I don’t feel like it. I also practice self-compassion. If I forget a day, or I don’t have a great attitude one day, I give myself the grace that I know my Lord gives me. His mercies are new every day.

So what do we do with all of this? The first step is to pick one verse…one practical application…one idea and focus on that one thing. If you try to implement everything at once, your chances of success are lower. Pick one area to focus on and then when you have that down, add another. This might mean starting a gratitude journal, or writing our your prayer requests, or having a time each day you get into God’s Word. Whatever first step you choose, it will be more than you were doing the day before.

Thanks for sticking with me through all of this series on finding peace. And if you aren’t a follower of Christ, but you are intrigued and want to know more about how to have this peace, or at least have a safe place to ask some questions, please reach out as I would love to talk to you. Or, if you find yourself stuck in anxiety, fear, loneliness or depression, please contact us for counseling support.   

Check out the video for part four.