Today we are going to take a posture of peace by being naive.
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.
Okay so today I'm going to be sharing with you guys a clip from a real life mentoring
moment.
Every month my friend and mentor Graham Cook and I lead online challenges on Facebook and
it's like a three day live study on topics that we both love exploring and diving into
and sharing and back in May I said something during one of these challenges that Graham
had to correct.
Like I said this is a real life mentoring moment and I wanted to share it with you because
we've been talking about joy this week and toxic positivity and you know there is so
much fear and intimidation floating around right now in our world and there's this stinging
accusation that those who are not fearful are just being naive.
Now in this clip I was sharing with Graham quite passionately how living in our kingdom
reality instead of the world's reality didn't mean we were being naive and this was Graham's
response.
Let me just say one thing about the word naive.
The original meaning when the word naive was first coined is it means to be pure and innocent
and what's happened is the world got old of it.
The devil gets hold of words like that and he twists them to mean naive means well you're
a little simple, you're a little stupid, you're a little backward or whatever.
You're naive.
He doesn't know anything really but the word naive means I know who God is and God is pure
and innocent towards me.
That's why he will never say anything or do anything to harm.
He will never lie.
He will never deceive you know.
You always know where you are with God because he's always the same and Luke 6 35 says that
you know God is kind to evil and ungrateful men.
What does that mean?
He's going to be himself regardless of who you are.
That's why he tells us to love our enemies because there's a purity, there's a strength
in that kind of love that overwhelms me but I love the fact that my prayer has been Lord
I want to be innocent.
I want my innocence back you know.
I want to have the innocence of a small child but I want to have your purity and your innocence
so that nothing overwhelms me.
Nothing makes me annoyed or angry because I just want to be like you.
You're always the same.
That's what I most love about God.
He never changes.
I always know who he is for me because he never changes.
Simple math.
He never changes.
That means he's always the same.
That is amazing.
I didn't even know that about the word naive.
So I'm receiving an increase right now in my understanding.
I'm being mentored live in front of all of you.
That is amazing.
That is so amazing.
Thank you Lord for your redemption.
Thank you for your original meaning and that you're redeeming that word for me.
Thank you so much.
In addition to the beautiful truth that Graham shared, I want you to notice something.
The tone.
Notice how Graham corrected my thinking gently and with delight in the truth.
Now do you think that Graham is treating me more kindly in my learning process than God?
No.
God also delights in sharing his truth with us and he delights in our learning and in
our growth.
There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
There is holy conviction of the truth that sets us free and God delights in setting us
free.
Notice how I responded.
You know, I could have been embarrassed.
There was a lot of people watching.
I could have defended myself or been like, Oh, that's not what I meant.
But you know, I'm learning to surrender this superficial need to always be right so that
I can always be free.
In the world, learning is often rushed and it's a harsh process.
But in the kingdom, everything about our lives is totally different, including our learning,
our growth, and our development.
Graham and I are going to be hosting another challenge next week on how God walks with
us in our learning and growth.
And let me just say, what we are going to be sharing during this challenge has truly
transformed my walk with God from feeling like I'm hustling through spiritual disciplines
in order to learn.
level up into a peace-filled lifestyle of delighting in his revelation and truth.
So I'll put the link in the description of this episode for you to learn more about
joining that challenge.
I hope you can join us next week.
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' ultimate win.
With every step you take today, you're putting Jesus' victory on display and Satan's defeat
on replay.