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Today, we're going to take a posture of peace

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by leaning into the silence that we sometimes encounter

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in our relationship with God.

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Hi, I'm Lindsay Van Zale.

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Posture is a podcast that serves a short,

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audible fist bump to remind you that God is in everything.

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Together, we're gonna be emboldened

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to take a daily posture of perfect peace.

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Psalm chapter 46, verse 10 says,

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be still and know that I am God.

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I will be exalted among the nations.

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I will be exalted in the earth.

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This week, I have been sharing

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about developing a confident expectation

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in God's goodness in every situation.

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And yesterday in episode 48,

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I shared about how I'm aligning my prayer life

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with this expectation, and I've allowed,

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I'm allowing peace to author all of my prayers.

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I've had to step away from quickly just throwing up prayers

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that are birthed from my own panic

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and desperation about a situation.

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And instead, I'm now learning to make the starting point

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of all of my prayers be thanksgiving to God.

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Now, if you watched yesterday's episode,

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a natural question you may have is,

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okay, what's the next step?

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What comes next?

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What's the next step?

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What comes after the thanksgiving part?

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And I just wanna be careful here

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to not prescribe some kind of step-by-step prayer formula.

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That is not the goal at all,

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because I don't believe that there's just one way to pray.

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But what I have found helpful

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is when people share with me

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what they've been learning about God,

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how they communicate with God

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and their prayer life, their secret place.

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That's why I'm sharing this with you

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is just a encouragement,

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a way to inspire you to think differently about prayer.

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And I mentioned yesterday this book

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that was written by one of my spiritual mentors, Graham Cook.

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It's called, Crafted Prayer,

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The Joy of Always Getting Your Prayers Answered.

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I highly recommend it.

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I'll put a link to this book

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in the description of this episode

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in case you're interested in checking it out.

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I hope you do.

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This book has really helped me break free

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from my own limited view of prayer,

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and it's expanded my understanding

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of what the empowering presence of God

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means for my prayer life.

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So as I pray, and as you can imagine,

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I'm praying a lot these days.

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I'm sure you are too.

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As I pray, I'm learning to practice

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what is written in Psalm 46,

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to be still and know that God is God.

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I'm learning to step away from the noise,

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the chaos, the confusion

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that's coming from the situation I'm praying about.

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And instead, I'm entering into my secret place,

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my refuge, with my divine prayer team,

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Jesus and the Holy Spirit,

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like we talked about yesterday.

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And it's in this place of stillness,

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I'm actually usually met with silence.

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So often when I enter into an awareness

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of his presence with thanksgiving,

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there is then this stillness and silence that I encounter.

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And in fact, it happens so regularly

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that now I often anticipate the silence.

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It's not a point of dread for me or frustration anymore,

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because now I know that his presence

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is just as transformative as his voice.

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So what happens in the silence is that the peace,

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which is always in me, by the way,

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and it's always in you,

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because the Prince of Peace himself is in us,

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that peace rises from my spirit to my head,

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and it silences the negativity, the accusation,

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the panic, the confusion, the stress

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that's coming from the situation or the need.

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And in the silence, in the stillness,

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in the presence of my prayer team,

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I'm not fighting off negativity

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or striving to be more peaceful.

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I am allowing the peace of my prayer team to rule my heart,

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just like Colossians 3 talks about.

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I used to believe that the silence

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meant that I was being ignored by God

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or that he had like left me and I was abandoned.

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A worse belief, too, is that I would also believe

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that I wasn't spiritual enough to hear God speaking,

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which that belief actually caused me way more panic

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than whatever situation I was actually facing,

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you know, praying about.

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But now I know, because I'm fully convinced

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of God's consistent nature to never leave me,

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that it's in the silence

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where I can allow my trust in the Lord,

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my peace, to silence the enemy.

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In the stillness, before I ask anything or hear anything,

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I'm becoming even more aware of who God is for me

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as I am with him.

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So today, I would love for you to try it.

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Make room for the stillness and silence in your prayer life.

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Don't be frustrated by the silence.

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Instead, savor.

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his presence. And by the way, this is not about necessarily getting alone in a quiet room or a

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quiet space. That's helpful, but I know it's not always possible. This is more about an inner

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stillness. I have been still in the midst of really hard conversations. I have been still

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in the midst of packed schedules and busy days. I have been still in the midst of all the chaos

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and noise and confusion swirling around me right now with this pandemic. Stillness, like peace,

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is a posture. It's a stance. It's standing firm while leaning into the majesty of God's presence

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and provision. It's deciding not to turn the chaotic head noise, all the lies, the accusation,

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the dire facts about the situation into a prayer based on my own strength. But instead, it's

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mirroring the stance of my Prince of Peace because he's not worried or panicked about anything.

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So today, try it. Practice stillness because even before you know exactly what to pray,

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in the stillness, you are already overcoming the enemy's schemes to drag you into a pit of despair

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and hold you under the weight of your circumstances. You can trust this. No matter

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what you face today, your prayer team is already present and they are already praying.

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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,

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I trust the 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 of what he did

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

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defeat on replay.