Today, we are going to take a posture of peace by turning our eyes away from looking at worthless things.
Posture is a short, audible fist bump to remind you God is with you in everything.
Together, we're going to be emboldened to take a daily posture of perfect peace.
In Psalm 119 verse 37,
it says, turn my eyes away from looking at worthless things and give me life in your ways.
Now, worthless things is not necessarily hard things.
You know, we have to face hard things in this life.
We know this.
And as people of the kingdom, who better than us?
Because we can bring solution and answer to the hard things in this world.
But as someone who is on her screen a lot,
and I'm sure a lot of you watching are on your screen as well,
while you're on your screen right now, while you're watching this,
or perhaps listening to this,
it's very easy to consume in one day a lot of worthless things,
worthless information, worthless content as you're scrolling your screen.
And, you know, a good gauge, of course, we have the Holy Spirit and he's our helper
and he'll lead us and guide us in all truth.
But a good gauge for me that I've been asking the Holy Spirit as I'm consuming content
and really a lot of days just deciding not to scroll or to stop the scroll
is asking myself, is this life-giving?
Is the information I'm partaking of life-giving?
And another great question to ask is,
can I engage with this content with the perspective of heaven?
Can I see with the eyes of God, whatever the content is?
And some days I'm able to, and some days I have to just turn off the screen.
I have to look away.
And so it's a prayer of mine.
Often I've adopted this prayer, this request of Psalm 19, asking the Lord,
you know, Lord, turn my eyes away from looking at worthless things
and give me life in your ways.
And as I've been practicing this in my own life,
what I have found is the quickest way to look away from something
is to look to something.
And I have been looking to scripture and it's been a beautiful shift for me.
And so that's what we're going to do today.
Together, we are going to turn to scripture
and I want to read Psalm 91 over you today.
I'd love for you to just soak this in as I read it.
I'm going to read the whole chapter.
It's not a super long chapter, but man, this is the chapter for 2020,
if you ask me.
What's beautiful is that this is a Psalm that's very personal to me
because it has followed me most of my life.
This was our family's favorite Psalm.
We recited it often together.
And I can't help but think about the prophetic nature of that.
I want to thank and honor my parents for doing that from such a young age
because I feel like having that Psalm tucked away in my heart and my spirit
early on was preparing me to take on a year like 2020.
And so you can receive this as well.
Maybe this is a Psalm that you're familiar with,
or maybe you've never heard it before.
I want to read it to you because this Psalm is chock full of promise
that you can partake in.
It's conditional.
And the only condition is it's for whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High.
So if you want to dwell in the shelter of the Most High,
these promises are for you to partake in today.
So let me read this over you.
Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord.
Some translations say, I will say to the Lord.
I will say this to the Lord.
He is my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust.
Surely, most certainly, that's what surely means.
He will save you from the fowler's snare, from the deadly pestilence.
He will cover you with his feathers and under his wings, you will find refuge.
His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.
You will not fear of the tear of night, nor the arrow that flies by day,
nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday.
A thousand may fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand,
but it will not come near you.
You will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked.
If you say, the Lord is my refuge, and you make the Most High your dwelling,
no harm will overtake you.
No disaster will come near your tent.
or near your home. For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you
in all your ways. They will lift you up in their hands so that you will not
strike your foot against a stone. You will tread on the lion and the cobra. You
will trample the great lion and the serpent." And then this is what the Lord
says to you, who has the one who has chosen to make him your shelter.
Because he loves me, says the Lord, I will rescue him. I will protect him for he
acknowledges my name. He will call on me and I will answer him. I will be with him
in trouble. I will deliver him and honor him. With long life, I will satisfy him
and show him my salvation. The promise of perfect peace is found in Isaiah 26 3.
In Hebrew, it is shalom shalom, meaning complete wholeness, nothing missing,
nothing broken. This is who you are in Jesus because of Jesus. You are a living testimony
of Jesus's ultimate win. With every step you take today, you're putting Jesus's
victory on display and Satan's defeat on replay.