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Speaker 1: Life Audio. For more resources to help you in your

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Speaker 1: walk with Christ, please visit us at Bible Studyheadquarters dot com.

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Speaker 1: You're listening to daily devotions with Pastor John. I'm John Stangey,

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Speaker 1: and today's devotion is inspired by Psalm forty six, verse ten,

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Speaker 1: which says, be still and know that I am God.

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Speaker 1: I will be exalted among the nations. I will be

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Speaker 1: exalted in the earth. How often do we convince ourselves

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Speaker 1: that for our lives to truly work out, we have

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Speaker 1: to be in control. What happens when we buy into

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Speaker 1: that mistaken belief, well, first off, we become anxious. Anxiety

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Speaker 1: comes when we try to control things that we can't

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Speaker 1: truly control. We may fight admitting that fact to ourselves,

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Speaker 1: but the simple fact is that there are many things

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Speaker 1: that we try to control that only God can control. Secondly,

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Speaker 1: we rob ourselves of rest, our souls ache for peace,

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Speaker 1: but we can't find peace by trying to be our

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Speaker 1: own God. True peace comes when we surrender ourselves to

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Speaker 1: Jesus and recognize that he is Lord. God's word reminds

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Speaker 1: us to be still and to know that he is God.

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Speaker 1: We don't have to do God's job for him. We

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Speaker 1: don't have to fix the things only He can fix.

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Speaker 1: We don't have to change the lives and behaviors of

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Speaker 1: the people we care about. Our job is to be

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Speaker 1: an ambassador of Christ, to pray for the people in

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Speaker 1: situations that we need the Lord to intervene with, and

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Speaker 1: to trust him for the results. How are you doing

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Speaker 1: with this? What about your personality or past experiences makes

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Speaker 1: it challenging for you to be still and let God

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Speaker 1: be God. Let's pray. Lord. Thank you for your word,

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Speaker 1: and thank you for the privilege that it is to

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Speaker 1: look at this portion of scripture from Psalms and to

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Speaker 1: think about what you're communicating to us in it. Lord.

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Speaker 1: We know that in so many contexts of life, we

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Speaker 1: try to control all things. We try to be the

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Speaker 1: one who calls all the shots and orchestrates all the details.

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Speaker 1: But Father, we know that that's not something that's really

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Speaker 1: in our power to do. We know that that's something

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Speaker 1: you can do, and we need to trust you to

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Speaker 1: do your job without trying to do your job for you. Lord.

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Speaker 1: We also recognize that there are certain aspects of our

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Speaker 1: personalities and certain aspects of our past experiences that contribute

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Speaker 1: to our struggle with this. We know that your word

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Speaker 1: tells us to be still and to trust you to

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Speaker 1: do what you're doing. But sometimes experiences from our past

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Speaker 1: cloud our judgment, and sometimes our driven personalities can influence

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Speaker 1: us to make decisions that really are about us trying

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Speaker 1: to grab control instead of us trusting you to be

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Speaker 1: in control. But Father, we pray that we would grow

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Speaker 1: in wisdom as men and women who know you through

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Speaker 1: your son Jesus Christ. We know that you've granted us

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Speaker 1: the gift of your wisdom. We know that you allow

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Speaker 1: us to begin seeing things with your eyes, and we

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Speaker 1: pray that as we grow in that perspective that that

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Speaker 1: would contribute to us trusting you more and more in

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Speaker 1: all circumstances and resting in the fact that you have

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Speaker 1: a perfect plan and you're bringing it all to fruition. Again, Father,

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Speaker 1: we thank you for this reminder from your word today,

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Speaker 1: and we're grateful for your presence with us right now.

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Speaker 1: We pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen.