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Today, we're going to take on a posture of peace by leaning in to our friendship with God.

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Hi, I'm Lindsay Van Zale. Posture is a podcast that serves as a short audible fist bump to remind

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you that God is in everything. Together, we're going to be emboldened to take a daily posture

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of perfect peace. Well, welcome to my front porch. I could not stay inside another minute

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with this beautiful spring weather, and I wanted to just share it all with you today,

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coming at you live from the front porch of my home, which is affectionately known as Haven Hill.

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Let's jump in today. I'm really excited about what I have to share. In Psalm chapter 16,

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verse 11, David writes this to the Lord. He says, You make known to me the path of life.

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In your presence, there is fullness of joy, and at your right hand are pleasures

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forevermore. Kind of like the pleasurable spring weather that I'm enjoying right now with you guys.

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In episode 33, I shared about my own season of transformation that happened last year and how I

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learned to embrace the radical change, both good and bad, that was happening in my life

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by being led in a revelation of who my never-changing God actually is.

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When we don't know what to expect from the circumstances in our lives, we can always

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place our expectation on the goodness of God. And it's taking that action, that step of clinging to

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what we know about who God is, even in the midst of our unknown circumstances, that's what builds

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our trust, and it grows our faith, and ultimately it produces a lasting, perfect peace in our lives.

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And we begin to live this lifestyle continuously that empties Satan's hands and runs hell dry.

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But you know, you have to know who God is in order to, well, know him. And I know that sounds

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obvious, but so often I have sought to know more about God through intellectual study instead of

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seeking to know him more through relationship. And you know, looking back, I now realize that

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I have been in some of my deepest pits of despair when I have had to face those unknown circumstances

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and hardships of life without a revelation of who God really is. You know, without knowing his nature,

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his characteristics, without knowing his voice. You know, think about it. We don't expect our human

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relationships to flourish only through head knowledge, only by knowing about each other.

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So why would we treat our relationship with God like that? You know, I think about my relationship

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with my husband Bruce. I know Bruce's voice. Like, when he calls and he says hello, I know it's him.

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I don't have to look at the caller ID for confirmation or ask, Bruce, is that really you

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talking to me right now? No, I don't doubt my ability to hear Bruce's voice or to understand

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what he's saying to me because after all of these years, I can so easily recognize his voice on the

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other end of the phone. And not because I know a lot about Bruce, even though I do, but it's because

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I know him. Through an 11-year relationship, my relationship with Bruce is not based on me

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reading a lot about him on someone's Facebook post or having a lot of people tell me about who he is

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or reading a lot of books about him. No, I know Bruce through my experiencing him,

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my conversations with him, my speaking to him face to face, all of these years.

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And that's how my trust in him has grown so much. In fact, I trust him so much that if someone were

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to come today and wrongly accuse him of something, I wouldn't even have to spend time questioning

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whether or not it was true because I know Bruce. I can easily shrug off any accusation about him

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because I know how Bruce would respond to someone. I know what Bruce would say in a given

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circumstance. So I don't have to live in this torment of wondering whether or not Bruce is good

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or whether or not Bruce is going to be good to me because I have experienced his goodness to me

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all of these years. And you know what? God is so much more trustworthy than Bruce because Bruce,

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like you and me, is human and ultimately imperfect. But yet so many of us place the bulk of our trust,

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the bulk of our well-being in our human relationships, and we hold God at arm's length

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questioning his goodness anytime a circumstance is not good. We find ourselves questioning whether

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he loves us, whether he cares.

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for us, whether he hears us, whether he wants to speak to us today or not. And

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whenever the accuser comes trying to lie to us about him, we often spend our

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energy struggling to maintain our belief in his goodness instead of just simply

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shrugging it off. And you know, I could tell you so much about God like all day

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long and I love doing it, and of course I'm going to continue to do it through

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this posture podcast, but I realize if you never experience him for yourself

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you're going to forget what I tell you when the accuser comes to lie to you

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about him or tries to leverage a horrible circumstance in your life to

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explain God's nature. No, no, no. So instead I want us to spend time as a

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posture community deepening our friendship with the Lord this week. And I

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realize we're all unique individuals, so I unfortunately cannot offer a one size

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fits all formula for how to build a friendship with God because your

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expression of friendship with him may be different than mine, but what I can

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do is I can share from some of the fruit of my friendship with him to inspire you

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in your own walk with him. Because here's what I do know, without a shadow of a

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doubt, when you seek God you will find him. And what stirs me about Psalm 1611,

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which is David, by the way, who was a friend of God, writing about God, it's

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this reminder that it's in God's presence where we find fullness of joy.

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In his actual presence, not in just our study of him or in our intellectual

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knowledge of him. So today, maybe before we seek to figure out another thing

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about God or seek another thing from him, let's just simply ask God to make us

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aware of his presence, to make his nearness known to us. And this week, let's

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expect a deeper friendship with God to emerge. The promise of perfect peace is

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found in Isaiah 26 3, and in Hebrew it is shalom shalom, meaning complete wholeness.

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Nothing missing, nothing broken. This is who you are in Jesus. Let's declare this

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together. Today, I am kept in perfect peace. With my whole heart, I trust the

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Lord. I am strong. I am victorious. I am whole. Remember, friend, you are a living

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testimony of Jesus's ultimate win. Not because of anything you did, but because

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of what he did for you. With every step you take today, you're putting Jesus's

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victory on display and Satan's defeat on replay.