"Braving It" Pt.1

We're gonna start a new series today called Braving It.

Nicole just said that.

And we want to take a few weeks and talk about uh pressure, talk about stress, talk about anxiety, talk about worry, talk about fear.

And if I were to ask for a show of hands, those five words I just listed anxiety, stress, fear, worry, pressure, um, I'm not gonna ask you to raise a hand, but my guess is we'd be close to 100% if anybody in this room has experienced any one of those five things.

And I I've loved preparing for today.

And the reason we need to make it a series is because I was as I was getting ready for this morning, the Bible actually has a lot to say about anxiety.

A ton to say about how to how to handle pressure and stress.

And the world we live in, um, and even maybe how we're brought up, doesn't necessarily equip us or arm us to know how to respond.

And so I'm not a psychologist, I'm not a medical doctor, I'm just a guy who loves Jesus and who loves the fact that God took the time to inspire humans to write down his thoughts and his truth and that we call scripture, that we call the Bible, and that it means something to us today in 2018.

And uh so I want to pray and then we're gonna dive in.

Sound good?

Father, thank you so much for the opportunity to gather in this space.

God, we thank you that we don't have to beg or or plead or or even cross our fingers and hope that your your presence is somehow gonna be here today.

We can actually have a hundred percent confidence that because we're here and you're in us, that you're here.

And so we invite you um to speak in a way that only you can.

Father, I I surrender and submit the words that I've prepared to your presence, um, to the overriding of your voice.

Because more than anything, God, it's actually your voice that we want to have as the clearest in our life.

And you're a God who loves to communicate with his kids.

Help us to never forget that as we lean into your word today.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

So for the sake of um being on the same page, um, let's define fear, worry, stress, pressure, anxiety.

And when I'm talking about anxiety today, I'm not talking about um mental health anxiety disorders.

That's a thing.

It's a thing nowadays, and I think it was a thing when I was a kid, but I just didn't hear about it when I was a kid.

But I hear about it all the time now in my children's school, um, in the youth group that I helped lead for the last 20 years in Winnipeg.

Um, anxiety disorders are very real thing.

And I also want to say before I dive in today that in no way am I diminishing or demeaning a very real diagnosis for some of us, even here in this room.

But I but I desire to look at what God says about these things in our life.

So anxiety, best defined, is a feeling of worry or dread or nervousness or unease that's usually attached to the anticipation of something that's perhaps going to happen.

So anxiety is most commonly that feeling of being uneasy about something that is probably going to take place.

Not even definitely going to take place, but probably going to take place.

Uh, for instance, I have a good friend who has social anxiety, and he has a hard time working up the nerve to step into a crowd because he is terrified that he might have an awkward encounter with another human being.

And it's not even uh necessarily going to happen, it's just a fear that it probably is.

And so, and then fear is a response to something that has happened.

Most common.

Fear is usually a reaction to something that's taken place.

We can feel afraid for things that are coming, but fear in its essence is attached to things that have just happened or happened a while ago, and that terror is there.

Worry tends to be thoughts, imagining, and feelings attached to something that again might happen in the future.

So we worry about, we don't worry about what happened in the past, right?

I don't get I don't get the feeling of worried that uh you know our daughter was born 13 years ago.

That that past event doesn't carry any worry.

It's future events that bring worry into our life.

Are we all on the same page on that?

Okay, and then stress is that sort of mental or emotional tension that we feel from difficult or demanding life events or circumstances.

So when life presents us with something that's demanding or challenging, we feel stress.

Is stress bad?

I heard two people say no.

It's actually not, it's pretty normal.

How we deal with it, entirely different conversation.

That's why we're talking about this.

And then pressure is the feeling of stress caused by the need to get something done, often in a short period of time.

So these these are the most um basic and yet all-encompassing definitions that in in all my research and preparing for today that I thought, and you might you might argue with me, and again, I I don't profess to be a professional on this subject.

I just want to say that up front.

And it will be a conversation over the next few weeks that I invite you to come back to, because I'm not able to cover everything in one short sitting today.

But the truth is, we've all been there.

There's a train of thought in our world and in the system of the world that we live in, though, when it comes to anxiety, fear, stress, pressure, worry, there's a little bit of a, you know what, just figure out a way to muscle through it.

Figure out a way to just push through it, figure out a way to strong arm through it, or figure out a way to just brave it.

And maybe you can find a good counselor or some coping strategies or some sort of ability to kind of push through, but it has to do with uh humans amping up the bravery to just brave through the pressure, brave through the stress, brave through the worry.

Um, everybody agrees that to succumb to it and to give into it's probably not healthy, but the world will try and equip you or arm you with some coping strategies, and some of the coping strategies that are very real in our world are substance.

I know a lot of people that to deal with pressure and fear and stress turn to a substance.

They turn to a glass of wine.

They can't they can't settle into home and family after a work day without that glass of wine.

So they turn to a substance.

And again, hear me correctly, I'm not saying that's a wrong thing.

I'm just saying it's a thing.

Okay?

It's a thing in our world.

They turn to nicotine to handle pressure.

Um this week, maybe a lot more people are turning to marijuana to handle pressure.

Um, right?

Um, maybe some of you stood in line this week.

I'm not judging, but I'm just saying, just because it's permissible doesn't mean it's beneficial.

Um people turn to entertainment as a coping strategy.

They anesthetize with the flashing lights of a television or buttons on a video game console.

But they turn to entertainment to anesthetize.

And if I were to be completely honest, my favorite way to de-stress is to play video games.

I don't do it very often, but it's probably one of my favorite ways to just sort of like tune out.

And I know what you're thinking, I'm like this 42-year-old weirdo, but I have two sons, so that gives me permission to play more video games, right?

Um anybody here play Fortnite?

Not me.

Not me.

I'm just asking.

I'm just asking.

Um, TVs, movies, video games, reading a book, entertainment, right?

Some people turn to exercise to handle pressure and stress.

They work out, they do yoga, uh, they go for a run, um, they go lift weights.

And those, again, I'm not saying that any of these things are evil or good, or you know, I'm just saying the other things.

These are coping strategies that exist in our world.

And some people turn to spiritual disciplines, to prayer, to meditation, to fasting.

Um, we could call yoga exercise, or for some people it's very spiritual.

But these are things, these are coping strategies that exist.

So when it comes to you personally handling the pressures that you feel, the anxiety that's pushing at you, maybe even today, maybe for some of you, just to turn up at church brought some kind of fear or anxiety, and maybe there's worry in your life right now, maybe there's care and weight.

And how do you handle it?

Do you just brave it?

Do you cope with it?

Do you cover it up with one of the coping strategies that I've talked about?

Or do you identify with a supernatural peace that covers, fills in the holes, and brings us through?

Because to cope with something usually involves us holding our breath until we experience those same feelings again.

Because that that that house mom that comes home from work and has a glass of wine today to handle her pressure is probably gonna do that same thing tomorrow.

And it's it's a coping strategy, it's a learned behavior.

What does the Bible say?

That's a good question.

Let's find out.

A couple of verses I want to start with.

And I want to mention today, um some of you have asked me about um me preaching from the message translation.

I got an email a couple weeks ago.

Do you preach from the King James Version of the Bible?

And my response was if you're hoping the answer is yes, this church isn't for you.

Um, because I don't speak Elizabethan English.

I never learned it in school, and I'm not saying that to slight, because I actually grew up in a tradition where the King James Version was used.

And so I lean into other translations that make sense.

And you know, one of the ones I love is the message translation.

And if you're unfamiliar with the message translation, I actually had an opportunity to spend some time with Eugene Peterson, the man who went back to Hebrew and Greek texts and pulled all of the value and the weight and the meaning and the relevance and put it into modern day English.

Years and years and years it took him to retranslate um the original manuscripts into modern day English.

And there's another translation that I'm leaning into right now that I love.

It's called the Passion Translation, TPT.

And all of the scripture I'm gonna go through today is from uh the Passion Translation.

And the Passion Translations uh actually did the exact same thing as the message.

It went back to the original, but their intent was to pull out God's love and God's passion for his kids in a contemporary translation of scripture.

So I want to encourage you in your own time this week.

The scriptures that I use, feel free to go back to whatever Bible translation you love.

Maybe you're an NIV person or an amplified person or a new King James or an original King James, or there's so many.

But um, for the sake of today, I'm teaching from the Passion Translation.

1 Peter 5, verse 7.

1 Peter 5:7

Here's what it says pour out all of your worries and stress upon him and leave them there, for he always tenderly cares for you.

I could just settle on that one verse and explore what does it mean to pour out and leave all of our worry and all of our stress on God and just, you know, allow him to love us.

But I'm gonna start with that verse.

And the second verse I want to share is Psalm 46, verse 10.

Psalms 46:10

It says, surrender.

Everybody say surrender.

Like you mean it.

Surrender your anxiety.

Be silent and stop your striving, and you will see that I am God.

I am the God above all the nations, and I will be exalted throughout the whole earth.

The one true God, the creator of heaven and earth, it's kind of mind-blowing that he invites every single human being to pour out and leave all of their stress and worry with him, to surrender anxiety in his presence.

Isn't that incredible that God invites us to the depth of that kind of relationship?

And he says, Hey, you know what?

I love you.

I know you're worried, I know you're stressed, I know you're anxious, I acknowledge that it's there.

Could you pour it out and surrender it with me?

And that's the invitation.

And that sounds lovely, but how?

How do we do that?

How do we pour it out?

How do we surrender that anxiety?

Well, that's kind of what I want to talk about.

And I thought I'd maybe bring a few props along today.

I haven't really used props yet in the last month.

And some people are visual learners, and so I'm gonna share with you um my all-time favorite coping strategy.

Is that okay?

Okay, it's coffee.

Coffee.

Can I get an amen?

Okay, so I actually brought, just for the sake of the kicks and the giggles, this is my um my prize creation, my virtuoso burr grinder.

Everybody say hi there.

Yeah, yeah.

He's a little shy, but uh, don't worry.

Um, I also brought um a really good friend of mine.

This is my gooseneck kettle.

Why is it called a gooseneck kettle?

Well, because the spout is apparently in the I'm a little teapot short.

No, that's my gooseneck kettle.

Um, does anybody know what this is?

Shout it out.

French press, very good.

French press.

Does anybody know what this is?

Aeropress! Oh, we got a couple of hipsters in the crowd.

That's good.

That's good.

That's my aeropress.

I actually have two of these.

And if you fly with me, I'm probably gonna make coffee on the airplane with my aeropress.

Just telling you.

Does anybody know what this is?

A chemex, very good.

This is a chemex pot.

And does anybody know what this is?

A V60.

You were thinking it.

It's a V60.

It's it's uh and this is another gadget I brought along.

Because if you're serious about making coffee, you need a good scale.

Don't laugh.

It's true, it's true, it's true.

And then I also brought a cuisin art rubber mat because I don't want my chemic spot to break.

I love him.

He's great.

So it's for real.

Yeah.

Nicole, I have a whole counter and cupboard in my house with coffee gadgets.

Now, is this okay?

Me being on my knees just for the sake of this for a few minutes.

I want to talk to you about two basic ways to make coffee.

Number one, the pour over.

Number two, the full immersion.

Okay?

This is the thing.

If you're familiar with a French press, this is called full immersion brewing.

And basically, uh, you know, both of these involve, or all of these involve a filtering process, they all involve coffee grinds, they all involve hot water, uh and they all involve extraction of some kind, but the the methodology is very different.

Full immersion, basically, those coffee grinds in that hot water, they're like hanging out together.

They're fully immersed with one another for a period of time.

Now, what you have to be cautious of with full immersion brewing is if you if you don't give it enough time and you extract and filter that coffee too soon, you're gonna have coffee that's under-extracted and it's probably gonna taste a little bit sour.

Say sour.

Sour.

And if you leave it for too long, you're gonna over-extract the beans, and that coffee's gonna be bitter.

Say bitter.

These are important words.

Um, and so this is uh a full immersion method.

The Aeropress is also full immersion, but the coffee, the grinds, and the water, they're all together in perfect harmony for as long as you decide.

And then usually through force, you extract that coffee through a filter.

Full immersion.

Pour over, on the other hand, is my favorite way to drink coffee.

I make a chemex pot almost every day.

And the one gadget I didn't bring because it looks like a coffee bong, I'm not gonna lie, it's called a siphon or a vacuum pot.

If I brought it, you would have judged me.

And I don't want to be judged.

So um, but I use my chemex pot and my siphon the most.

But this is a pour over method.

So again, you've got a filter and you've got a vessel.

This sits right on top of a mug, by the way, in case you're wondering, where does the coffee go?

Uh it goes into your cup.

And and you pour over the hot water.

So that's the science.

The coffee's extracted by, and that's why I use a gooseneck kettle, because it's a slow and steady stream.

Come over sometime, I'll make you coffee.

We'll talk about this all day.

And you you saturate the grinds evenly and slowly, and you pour the water over the grinds, and then you make a beautifully excellent cup of coffee.

Now, whereas full immersion is about the time, you don't want to be under because you get what kind of coffee if you if it's too little?

Yeah, but if you let it sit too long, it's very good.

In the case of pour over, it's all about the grind consistency.

If if my grind is too coarse in a pour over method, that coffee will extract too quickly, and again will leave me with coffee that's tasting sour.

You got it.

And if it's too fine, it'll take too long and it'll be over-extracted, and I'll have coffee that tastes bitter.

Same idea, different methodology.

You basically handle pressure and stress one of these two ways.

Most human beings, I could lump into these kind of categories.

When you go through something that feels like pressure, stress, weight, anxiety, fear, some people just seem to have the ability to just let it pour over.

And it just kind of comes through them and they handle it and they move on.

But those people often, if they move on too quickly and they don't actually process that pressure, they end up being sour.

And also, if if they if it pours over in that kind of person, but but something in the consistency of that takes too long, they end up turning bitter.

And we all know people who feel nasty, sour, or bitter because of stress, pressure, weight, anxiety, fear, worry in their life.

At the same time, other people seem to go through something that's like pressure and it's just all-encompassing.

They're fully immersed in it, and it almost becomes their identity.

And over time they seem to work through it, but sometimes they just they linger too long and it turns like bitterness in their life.

And we have to be cognizant of how we process the pressure and the weight and the fear because God Almighty, who invites us into this meaningful relationship where he says, pour out, leave it with, cast it all.

He also says, I will answer your cry for help every time you pray, and you will find and feel my presence, even in your time of pressure and trouble.

I will be your glorious hero.

I can be your hero, baby, is what God says.

He says, regardless of whether you're just like, I want to get through this, or you're like, ooh, it's just too much.

The same God answers your cry all the time.

He's with you through it.

And that's how I want to end today's message, because maybe, just maybe, it's not so much about the God that we serve being magical somehow and like removing the pressure from my life, but how he equips us with courage and faith and dignity and strength to work through it as we rest and abide and experience his peace.

And that's where I want to end today's method.

Because these two unique strategies, the pour over method or the full immersion method of handling stress, one isn't better than the other.

Because both can produce sour, nasty, and bitterness.

In fact, I know I know pour-over people who seem to process things quickly, but then there's the residue.

There's there's there's residue left over stuff, and they're never walk-free.

Our ability to experience the peace of Christ boils down to the consistency of our grind and the time spent in the grind.

And that's where I want to bring you home today.

John chapter 16, verse 33 says, and everything I've taught you, and this is Jesus speaking, is so that the peace which is in me will be in you and will give you great confidence as you rest in me.

John 16:33

Can I have confidence even though I'm feeling stressed out?

Can I still feel confidence?

Can I still the peace that's in Jesus, could it still be mine?

Could it still give me confidence?

Jesus goes on to say, for in this unbelieving world you will experience trouble.

Wait, what?

That that camp.

I thought when I I thought when I became a Christian that everything was gonna be okay.

What Bible are you reading?

To walk through the pressure, to walk through the weight of the worry, to walk through the fear, to walk through the anxiety means that we learn in the daily grind to deal with our time and our consistency as we rest and abide in the peace that Jesus brings.

Because Jesus has taken away the power that this world has to defeat us, and he's conquered it for us.

Jesus' conquering and victorious self didn't remove the problems, it removed the weight of the problems.

It removed the care of the problems.

Jesus has taken away the power that this world has to defeat us.

He's conquered it.

And true peace is resting in Jesus' victory.

1 Peter 5, 7, again, here's what it said.

Pour out all your worries and stress upon him and leave it there.

Psalm 46, surrender your anxiety.

Be silent and stop your striving.

And maybe these verses help us get a sense of how to rest and abide in the peace that Jesus promises.

I've got four points.

I'm not much of a point preacher, but I wanted to teach a little bit today as we close.

Just four quick points.

Number one, pour out.

Number two, leave it.

Number three, surrender.

Number four, be silent.

And number five, stop striving.

So number one, pour out.

How do we pour out our anxiety?

How do we pour out our stress, our worry, our fear?

And I think half the battle is just acknowledging that it's there.

And having the courage to use your own mouth to speak it out, what it is that you're terrified of, what it is that you're worried about, what it is that makes you feel anxious.

Actually use your own mouth and your own words and your own vocal cords in your prayer time to say, God, I'm terrified of moving to a new city with my family.

I don't have relationship or trust with anybody there.

It scares the bejebis out of me.

I'm so worried that it's just gonna be us.

I'm anxious that it's not your voice I heard, and it was my maybe my own pride or my own ego, God.

I'm actually being really vulnerable with you right now because this is this is not just an idea for me, it's a lived strategy that I'm still learning.

Because to step out in faith and to trust God in faith to start a new church, it takes a little bit of um uh pressure.

I'm being honest.

I'm being honest.

Even last night, can I be vulnerable for a second?

Can I be really real?

I was like, you know, we're seeing amazing people come.

And our keyboard player is away with her husband right now, so I'm like, I'm gonna step up and play keys on Sunday.

But I was stressed out last night.

I was stressed out about like, I gotta baptize people tomorrow and I gotta play keys and I gotta preach and I don't have what it takes.

And God's like, that's right.

You don't have what it takes, but I do.

And so would you just settle into my peace?

Would you pour it out?

That's the first step.

Pour it out.

Assume that God already knows, anyways, but pour it out nonetheless.

It's healthy to take obscure fear and worry contained within our heart and brain, because it's all just sort of swimming around in there.

It's actually really good for you to utter those words, to speak out what you're experiencing, to just declare it before God, say God, He knows, anyways.

But it's good for you to say it, it's good for you to hear it, because sometimes when I say what I'm afraid of, just saying it makes me go, wait a sec, that's not really a big deal after all.

And automatically I feel like God's presence does something just by pouring it out.

Number two, leave it.

Once it's poured out, don't pick it up again.

Leave it.

Just leave it.

Let's go back to our definition.

Anxiety had something to do with what?

What might happen in the future?

Worry, what might happen in the future?

Fear, what has happened in the past?

Are you with me?

We're wrapping up all of these negative experiences and stuff that might occur or has happened.

What about just right now?

What about if just right now, if I pour it out and leave it with the Father, I can just experience his absolute crystal clear peace.

Undeserved, undefined, but all-encompassing peace just right now.

Yeah, but what about two minutes from now?

Don't worry about two minutes from now, just leave it.

And then the clock ticks, and then you're like, wait a second, 60 seconds later, I'm still feeling at peace.

We wrap so much up in what might be or what has been, and God says, just pour it out and leave it.

And once you've poured it out and left it, he says, actually, before I move on, Luke 12, verse 25 and 26.

Luke 12:25

This is amazing.

Does worry add anything to your life?

Can it add one more year?

Actually, no, it's probably gonna take away years.

Can it add even one more day?

No, worrying chronically is gonna kill you sooner.

So if worrying adds nothing but actually subtracts from your life, why would you worry about God's care of you?

Beautiful invitation again to leave it.

Don't worry.

Pour it out, leave it.

Number three, surrender.

Surrender's an everyday choice.

Do you know what?

I'm gonna call surrender for the sake of today's object lesson.

Surrender is the grind.

Surrender is the daily grind.

Surrender is the daily in and out deciding that despite my best efforts or worst failures, I still surrender to the King.

I still submit my life to him first.

And in every moment, the ones that bring me heartache and pain, and the ones that have me lit up because I can take on the world, I choose to surrender in the grind every day.

And that might be the catalyst for you to begin to move through pressure and fear and worry.

It's just about bringing that sense of surrender back into your everyday life.

Yeah, but I'm good at my job.

I don't need God there.

Then you might have a pride issue.

Maybe there are parts of your workplace that you need to surrender to Jesus.

Yeah, but my marriage is going pretty good, John O.

I don't need to surrender that.

I've got this.

I've been married to that bag for 20 years.

We're good.

Well, maybe there are parts of your marriage that you need to bring an essence of God's spirit in life and surrender back to Him.

So pour it out, leave it, surrender.

And four is be silent.

Being silent is connected to finding silence.

You're like, oh, that's profound.

But for some of us it is.

And I'm not gonna get into this today.

Um, I teach a course that I developed on uh cell phone boundaries and social media for parents, and I'm gonna teach it for our community in the near future.

And I've been working on this presentation for over five years and adding more to it, but let's just pick on our cell phones for a second.

Let's just pick on technology and the noise of these things.

Let's just pick on how much time we spend on social media trying to engage the world through a screen and what actually that's producing in our life.

Do you know that an unhealthy priority for digital things produces anxiety in your life?

Because you see the best moments of other people's world and think, how could I ever measure up and compare?

And so you're automatically trying to make something future happen through a screen.

Let's just pick on that.

The ability to pour it out, leave it, and surrender is attached to our skill of choosing moments of silence.

And silence means shut off the noise.

What's the noise?

Well, for you, the noise might be your own brain.

It might be your own thought life, which we covered a few weeks ago.

Go back there, real listen about the voices that influence us.

It might be your own belief systems, it might be technology, it might be a coworker.

You're like, I knew it.

It's my coworker's fault.

No, it's you giving their voice weight that's the fault, if we if we have to find fault.

But the ability to be silent is attached and connected to us learning how to find silence and prioritize silence.

And lastly, stop striving.

The ability to find rest in Jesus is to just acknowledge, God, despite my best intentions or my worst effort, you're in this.

You're in this storm, you're in this worry, you're in this, you're in this moment of stress, you're in this anxiety.

And so I'm gonna pour it out, I'm gonna leave it with you.

I'm gonna trust you.

I'm gonna be silent, and I'm gonna stop striving.

Striving is best defined as just kind of our own effort.

I'm gonna close with 2 Corinthians 6, verse 4.

2 Corinthians 6:4

Yet as God's servants, we prove ourselves authentic in every way.

For example, we have great endurance in hardship and in persecution.

We don't lose courage in times of stress and calamity.

And that's the win.

When we talk about living a life that's a credit to the message of Christ Jesus, the world's watching you going, oh my goodness, I want to become a Christian because that person's life is perfect.

No.

What they're doing is going, oh my goodness, that person's going through hell, but they're not staying there.

They're walking through, they're coming through that stress and that weight with something I've never seen before.

Peace in the middle of a storm, peace that passes their natural ability to understand.

That's the peace that Jesus promises.

That's the invitation to pour out, leave, commit.

Just present it to God.

And he says, I'll be there with you.

I'll walk through it.

Finding peace as we rest in Jesus is less about braving the pressure, stress, worry, fear, and anxiety, and more about abiding in the promise of peace as we pour it out, leave it, surrender, find silence, and stop striving.

In Jesus' name.

Psalm 91, 15.

I will answer your cry for help when?

Every time you pray.

And you will find and feel my presence, even in your time of pressure and trouble.

I will be your glorious hero and give you a feast.

And I want that to be our heart cry today, and I want that to be our homework this week.

I want you to take something away from today practical.

Because here's what I'm going to promise you.

Sometime this week, you're going to walk into a situation that feels like pressure, fear, worry, anxiety, stress.

And so maybe it's just about surrendering in the grind.

Paying attention to how consistent we are at surrendering in the grind.

Paying attention to the time that we give to pouring out and leaving it and giving it up to him and stopping with our striving.

Whether you're a full immersion, handle it or a pour over, handle it.

The invitation's still the same.

Pour out, leave it, surrender, find silence, and stop striving.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Let's pray.

Father, thank you for your word.

Thank you that in the Bible are words that carry weight and power and gold for our life today.

God, we acknowledge that sometimes we're terrible at handling pressure and stress and worry and fear and anxiety.

Sometimes it just feels overwhelming.

We don't know what to do.

We don't know how to respond.

We don't know what to say.

And that's the lie.

We believe that we have to do something on our own ability to push through, to brave it out.

But you've extended this beautiful invitation to every single one of us.

So just push pause in those moments that feel out of control.

Push pause in those moments that feel heavy and weighty and like we don't know where to turn.

And just remember to turn to you.

And as we turn to you, to practice pouring it out and leaving it and surrendering.

To practice the art of shutting off the noise and being silent.

And to remember we don't have to strive to make something happen.

But as we work through life's challenges, as we work through the stress and the weight and the care of this world and the anxiety that life can bring, you promise to be right there with us.

You are the I in our storm.

You are that perfect calm, that perfect peace.

And if we find our center in the middle of the storm resting in you, we can be sure of experiencing a peace that blows our natural minds, that we can't comprehend.

And that's when the world will look on and take notice and say, Oh my goodness, what do they have that I need?

God, we acknowledge that it's your presence that fills in the gaps.

It's more than enough.

That's all that we need.

Help us to surrender.

To be consistent in our surrender every day in the grind.

That's our prayer.

God, we thank you.