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Hello and happy 2021. Today we are going to take a posture of peace by peacefully practicing

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total trust. Posture is a short audible fist bump to remind you God is with you

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in everything. Together we're going to be emboldened to take a daily posture of perfect peace.

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In Psalm 4 verses 6 through 8 it says,

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Many people say, Who will show us better times? Let your face smile on us, Lord.

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You have given me greater joy than those who have abundant harvest of grain and new wine.

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In peace I will lie down and sleep, For you alone, Lord, will keep me safe.

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If you are already feeling overwhelmed or perhaps totally lost by trying to make the most of this

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new year ahead, I just want to encourage you right now, wherever you are,

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lean away from perfectionism and lean into peace. I want to share some excerpts from a journal

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entry of mine that I wrote this time last year. Now, I was frustrated this time last year because

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I felt like I lacked concrete plans. I had no impressive or articulate overview of what I

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wanted to accomplish in the year ahead and I kind of felt like everyone around me had really

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impressive goals and plans. All I really felt like I had for 2020 were these possibilities

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that were stirring in my heart. And so I wrote those possibilities down this time last year.

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I wrote, Perhaps what you think will be your new hustle in 2020, God will use for your healing

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instead. Perhaps instead of a specific place, you'll make the Lord your home in 2020. Perhaps

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peace will be your driver in 2020. Now, there was a theme that was emerging in these possibilities.

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Really, they were prayers of mine and that theme was total trust. Not in what I could necessarily

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pull off or build or launch on my own, but in what the Lord could do in me and through me.

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And soon after I wrote these words, my husband Bruce and I, we both sensed that God was inviting

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us on a fresh adventure in 2020. And maybe you're feeling this too. Maybe you're feeling those

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possibilities at the start of a new year. God asked us to let go of some things that we never

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wanted to release and he asked us to hold on to some things that honestly just felt too big for

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us to carry. But in his kindness, he let us know ahead of time, it would really only start to make

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sense as we trusted him by taking a step and moving forward with him. So we had a decision

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to make for the year ahead. And that decision was, would we totally trust him? Would we be moved by

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our own sentiments? Would we be driven by the expectations of others? Would we be directed

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by all that was happening in the world around us? Or would we choose to only be led by God himself?

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And we decided to say yes to only God in 2020. Now here's the thing. It was not a one-time yes.

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It would be an ongoing yes all year long. But this time last year when we started to say that yes to

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only the Lord, I honestly was nervous because I didn't trust myself to get it right and I didn't

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trust others to understand. But that was the point. You know, I wanted the safety of clarity and

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likability and concrete plans, but God wanted my freedom. And real freedom was only gonna come

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through a total trust that I was completely loved and sustained by him, even in the imperfection

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and misunderstanding. You know, he was inviting us to be empowered by his grace alone. Not because

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of who we were, but because of who he is. He was saying, hey, you can lean into me. You can lean

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into my nature. And as 2020 presented a lot of things that could have tossed us around,

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God taught Bruce and I that trust was not a feeling or a saying. It was action. And this

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looked like us disallowing fear and perfectionism from being the thing that fueled our activity

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or our inactivity.

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And here's the thing, our ongoing yes was not perfectly executed last year, but it was

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peacefully practiced.

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And practice makes permanent.

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God delights in our practice, not our perfectionism.

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Putting the truth into practice, that takes trust in God's empowering grace.

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Perfectionism puts the truth into question.

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It constantly asks things like, is God really trustworthy?

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Is he really who he says he is?

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Or do I need to take control and rely on my own strength and stamina to get this done,

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to make things happen, to make my life count?

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But in our practice of trusting the truth, God never falters.

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He proves himself faithful over and over again, and not just through specific circumstances

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or desired results and outcomes, but by his solid presence in every circumstance, no

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matter the outcome.

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What Bruce and I found was the truth last year, that God never leaves us and he never

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forsakes us.

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I hadn't planned to launch something like Posture this time last year, but God knew

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what was possible.

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So I wonder what possibilities he's stirring in you for 2021.

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What areas in your life is he asking you to totally trust him?

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God wants your freedom.

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He wants it more than you do.

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So make a resolution, make a firm decision to rest in his plans for you.

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And you may have to make that decision over and over again this year.

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Don't dread it.

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Don't feel condemned by it.

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Don't feel like it's a heavy weight.

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His yoke is easy and his burden is light.

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Delight in the practice of totally trusting him this year.