(This is a re-posting of an older post. I just found the older posts. I may be offline while packing and preparing to move so I need to post a few Musings ahead. This post is from a time before we moved to the ranch. I was dealing with my parents “stuff” on top of everything else.)

I got under pressure a few weeks ago. I still need to finish getting my mom’s house ready to sell, my own house was beginning to look like a bomb had gone off in the dining room and my closet, I was sick-sick-sick and tired of cleaning house (is there anything more boring?), I was muttering under my breath about the work I needed to do for the business, I wanted to eat everything fattening and bad for me, and I was just feeling major STRESS. 

I was sitting around feeling sorry for myself and blurted a loud, “Man, sometimes I hate my life.” The minute those words popped out of my mouth, I knew two things.

(1)   I didn’t mean them (and they made me feel even worse);

(2)   My time that should have been spent in the Word of God had gone for something else I deemed more important than God.

The Bible says in Matthew 12:34, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks”.  My mouth had simply spouted off what was inside me – not much – just stress and ingratitude. 

Whenever I get under pressure and think negatively or think, “I just don’t have time to do all I need to do,” I know I have not been spending enough time in God’s Word. Why? Because the Word of God will make my life work smoothly. Lack of Word equals a chaotic life. Plenty of Word equals perfect peace (Isa 26:3).

We all have two choices first thing in the morning. We can give God first shot at our day by getting up and reading our Bible and spending a bit of time in prayer with Him, OR we can give the devil first shot at our day by ignoring the Bible and thinking we don’t have enough time for that, and have a day full of chaos.

You (God) will guard him and keep him in perfect and
constant peace whose mind… is stayed (kept) on You,
because he commits himself to You, leans on You, and hopes
confidently in You.  Isa 26:3

Keeping our focus on God and His Word helps us begin to daily walk in constant peace. Get enough of the Word in us and we will come to a place that His Word is our reality. The Word will be more real than all symptoms of sickness or disease in our body, poverty or other negative circumstances in our life.  

When I am stuffed full of God’s Word, there is no room in me for dissatisfaction or depression. There is no room for stress or pressure. Everything operates smoothly, and I am at peace.

Isn’t that the best way to live?