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Today we're going to take on a posture of peace by leaning in and listening for the voice of

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our heavenly father. Hi, I'm Lindsay Van Zale. Posture is a podcast that serves a short audible

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fist bump to remind you that God is in everything. Together, we're going to be

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emboldened to take a daily posture of perfect peace. Welcome back to my front porch. I'm still

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here, true confessions. I have been spending most of my days lately out here on my front porch just

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soaking up the beautiful spring weather that we have been having in Atlanta, Georgia. I know many

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of us are staying home right now. Thankfully, we're all doing our part to flatten the curve

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on this virus. As I mentioned in my last episode, I have been spending this time deepening my

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friendship with God and my hope is that as a posture community, we can all lean in and do

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more of that together this week. Like I mentioned in episode 36, I don't believe that there is a

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one-size-fits-all model for building a friendship with God because we are all unique individuals.

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He made us that way after all, and so I believe that he connects with all of us in very unique

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ways. Often for me, it's never through just one way even. Many times, God uses many ways

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to reveal more of himself and to deepen our relationship together. All of that to say is

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what I'm not going to be doing over the next couple episodes is sharing like a framework or

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like a step-by-step formula on like this is how you build a friendship with God, but instead what

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I plan on doing is sharing with you some of the fruit from my own friendship with God to hopefully

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inspire you in your own walk with him. You know, I have found that God has often used the furnishings

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of my own natural mind to speak to me. Like sometimes he'll use my hobbies. For example,

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I love to read and so often God will use like the latest novel that I'm reading to share something

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with me about himself or to teach me something about the season that I'm currently in. And

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another example of this is like I have friends who adore sports, like they're huge sports fanatics,

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and it's funny how often God is speaking to them through sports metaphors, through examples of,

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you know, sports, sporting events. And you know, while some of that might sound silly to you,

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or maybe for some of you it just sounds like straight-up heresy, I want to just remind us

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that there is safety in this because everything God speaks to us can be backed by his word,

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by the Bible. But I think the beauty of all of that, of how God uses different things to speak

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to us is, you know, we have a God who is such a good father that he gets creative with us,

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and he enters into our hobbies and our interests to deepen his relationship with us. Now unfortunately

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I know that not everyone watching or listening to this had a good human father, and you know what,

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that sucks, there is no excuse for that, and I'm really sorry that that was your experience.

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I do know that the Lord is able to redeem all of that in your life, and he gives us his own

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fatherhood to do that. So if that was the case for you, if you didn't have a good human dad,

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I understand that this might be a harder concept to grasp, but the reality is is that good fathers

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take time to share in their children's interests. You know, with my own father, some of our deepest

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connections happen through our shared interest. You know, we both love baseball, and we both love

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history, so whether it was like playing catch in the yard, or talking about some random World War

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II facts, this is how my father and I often connected with each other and deepened our

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relationship. And so maybe you didn't have a dad that did that for you, but perhaps you've experienced

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this yourself with maybe your own kids, or the kids in your life, like your nieces or nephews.

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Have you ever found yourself, when you're playing with kids, that you get on their level to connect?

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You know, whether it's watching a cartoon they love, or reading their favorite story

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50 million times, or you know, playing with their toys together. You know, you care enough about them

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to enter into their worlds to deepen your relationship with them, and I believe that

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it's the same with God. You know, God shares your interests, because He made you, after all.

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He made you to enjoy what you enjoy, and dislike what you dislike. And you know, Psalm 37 4 says,

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Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. Now, I know that for

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some people, you know, some theologians believe that means that the Lord plants desires in your

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hearts, plants His desires in your hearts. I know that some people believe that that means that,

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you know, when you delight yourself in the Lord, He gives you what you are desiring in your heart.

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And quite honestly, I don't, I don't, I'm not smart enough to...

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know the difference or what this actually means, but I will say this. I think it can

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mean both. And here's what I'm so captivated by, whether that means he plants our desires

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or he gives us our desires. The creator of the universe is intimately involved with the

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desires of your heart. Doesn't that just blow your mind? There is a God in heaven who loves

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you so passionately that he is intimately involved with you. And I realize that for

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some of us, we have not experienced passionate love enough here on earth through our human

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relationships to even know what that's like. But the good news is that God himself is desiring

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to make himself known to you today. So much so that he will use anything to speak to us.

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Today, let's turn our ear to the Lord's voice and let's expect him to speak to us. Let's look

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for him in the details of our day. Now I know a big question, it's a good question, is how do we

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know it's him? How do we know if it's God speaking to me? Here's what I do know, because I know what

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the Bible, what the word of God says. In other words, this is what God says about himself. In

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1 John 4, verse 8, it says, God is love. God has corrected me at times, he has confronted me

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at times, he has disciplined me at times, and he has comforted me many times, all from a place

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of love. So what he may say today to you, it could be correcting, it may be confronting,

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it will most definitely probably be comforting in some way because it will always be loving.

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So ask him today to speak to you and then expect to hear. Here's what I know, the more that we do

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this, the more that we turn our ear to him, the more we're going to recognize his voice,

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the deeper of a relationship we're going to develop with him, and ultimately our trust will

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grow. The promise of perfect peace is found in Isaiah 26 3, and in Hebrew it is shalom shalom,

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meaning complete wholeness, nothing missing, nothing broken. This is who you are in Jesus.

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Let's declare this 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 testimony of

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Jesus's ultimate win, not because of anything you did, but because of what he did for you.

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With every step you take today, you're putting Jesus's victory on display and Satan's defeat

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on replay.