For What and Why? A Session Devotion

It’s not something that we would normally focus on but tonight, let us focus on “THE DIVIDE” — The Divide that is all around us and the unnecessary stress it is causing us to experience in our daily lives. It seems very hard to have a conversation with anyone these days before “THE DIVIDE” comes up and what started as a normal conversation turns more into a debate, and levels of stress begin to rise.  It has

Bob Freund

divided our churches, our schools, and even many of our families. And it has certainly divided our entire nation to extremes we have never before experienced in our lifetimes. The question every one of us needs to consider is For What and Why? Is it for POWER? Is it for GREED? We live in the world’s richest nation and have been blessed in so many ways and yet, we are surrounded by so many unhappy people. Their stress, from wherever it comes, leads to Drastic People Doing Drastic Things.

Pastor Rick Warren says:
“The battle with stress in your life begins between your ears. It’s in your thought life. What you fill your mind with determines your level of stress. If you want peace of mind, you have to control what you allow into your mind.”

For most people, the mind is like a freeway. They let anything drive through it. They watch shows that are full of junk and nonsense, scroll through social media sites that are polarizing, and listen to gossip that makes them envious. Then they are surprised when their mind’s freeway becomes polluted with all of these things. And, they wonder why their stress level is so high.

The Bible offers another way:
​Philippians 4:8 says, “Think about the things that are good and worthy of praise. Think about things that are true and honorable and right and pure and beautiful and respected.”

I say:  With God’s help we can do better.

Let us pray

Heavenly Father, fill us with your Holy Spirit and help us all to ask ourselves in all we do . . .

Is it Good?
Is it worthy of praise?
Is it true?
Is it honorable?
Is it right?
Is it pure?
Is it beautiful?
Is it respected?

In Jesus’ name we pray.
Amen