Hello everyone! I hope this finds you walking in the strength of His joy.
 
I was praying this morning with alot on my mind, and as I was giving my cares to the Lord it hit me how much I truly need His help every day of my life. I usually spend that first part of my prayer time thanking Him for who He is to me and all He has done for me and just for being who He is in my life in general. Then I will move into a time of laying my requests before Him, and asking for His wisdom and guidance in my life as a husband, father, leader, pastor, and so on. It was in this part of my prayer time today that it hit me in a strong sense of how incredibly dependant I am on His leading, wisdom and guidance.
 
I am always in the understanding that I need the Lord and the power of the Holy Spirit to aid me each day. But we need to have those times of fresh illumination of mind that really speaks to us how unable we are to do what we are called to do in Him without His divine strength and guidance. Those verses I read from Paul that deal with my weakness and His strength speak so loudly to me at times like this: ”And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. 10 Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:9-10).   
 
I still go to the gym 5 days a week and can still lift a good amount of weight, but that type of strength does nothing for me in situations like the above verses spell out, or in my life as I deal with struggles, and cares. That physical strength isn’t the strength that is needed in times like these, it is the strength I find in His power and wisdom.
 
If you haven’t come to the place in your walk with the Lord where you are completely giving over your cares to him (1 Pet. 5:7) then you need to do so starting today. You can’t carry the weight of your cares, troubles, and anxieties, and still walk in the fullness of His joy and peace. Trying to carry all that weight yourself will weigh you down and begin to steal your peace of mind and bring into your life anxiety, and unneeded stress. He doesn’t want you to do that. He tells you through His Word to give it to Him today, right now. I believe somebody who is reading this right now desperately needs to ‘let it go and let God’ as they say. You need to tip your shoulders over to the side and dump all that stuff you are carrying on your shoulders on the ground. He will pick it up for you! You need His help today, I need His help today. We are not burdening Him by doing this. He tells us to do it. But we will never tap into His help with this if we choose to try and do it our way, if we choose to be disobedient and carry it all ourselves.
 
So in closing my friend, admit right now that you need His help. I did this morning, and my weight and cares were lifted. Admit you need for His help right now and then choose to give it all to Him. He is big enough, strong enough, and wise enough to deal with it all!
 
God bless you and have a tremendously peace-filled week!
 
Pastor Brad Tuttle

I guess the first thing that I need to say is that confusion in your life is something that is definitely not a result of following God’s Word and will for your life. Confusion happens when we get ourselves into situations that we try to handle in our own strength and wisdom. Many times in our life as a true Christian we run into those moments of decision that we just don’t have the answer for but we still earnestly try to figure it out on our own. Or we may go ahead and make the decision from our own earthly wisdom and it gets us into a position of confusion; confusion that has to do with how did I get here and how am I going to get myself out of this?
 
I have been there. I have made a decision before that seemed like a good idea at the time and it seemed like a ‘God idea’ too, BUT I got ahead of God, I moved to quick in my decision and it put me into a situation that ended up in a quagmire of confusion. My eventual way out of it was to let God into it, and let Him decide what I should do from then on, and guess what, the place of confusion turned into a situation of peace and true God ordained purpose. Hmm… I guess the Bible is correct when it says,
 
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart
And do not lean on your own understanding.
6 In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He will make your paths straight.”-Proverbs 3:5-6
 
Verse 5 says, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart.” This is what I have so deeply learned in my own life as a believer. I have learned to begin, continue, and end every work, purpose, and device, with God. I have learned to earnestly pray for His direction at the beginning, and to look for His continual support along the way, so that everything I do will begin, continue, and finish in His glory! Leaning on our own self-sufficiency and self-dependence has been the ruin of mankind ever since the fall of Adam. Trying to live independently of God will do nothing but bring confusion. Trying to make the important decisions of your life without God can end you up in a place of great confusion.

This is a very important teaching because God is the origin or source of all good. He has made us, His creatures, dependent upon Himself. He requires us to be conscious of that dependence. He has promised to communicate what we need and He commands us to believe His promises, and look for our fulfillment in Him. But, we are to do this without doubt, fear, or distrust and we are to do it “with our whole heart.”
 
As well we can read, “The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace, Because he trusts in You.”-Isaiah 26:3
 
God will keep you in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Him, because you obviously trust in Him. He will keep you in perfect peace; what a great promise that is to you today! Perfect peace! God promises that we can have perfect peace, and even be kept in a place of perfect peace. I have learned that in Hebrew, the term perfect peace is actually shalom shalom. In Hebrew this repetition communicates intensity. It isn’t just shalom; it is shalom shalom, perfect peace. There is a perfect peace that the LORD will keep you in.
 
To be kept in this perfect peace is a matter of our mind. You, my friend, are to love the LORD your God with all of your mind as it says in Matthew 22:37, and you are to set your mind on things above as we see in Colossians 3:2. Your Christian life is not an unthinking life of just doing, or experiencing, but it is also about thinking, and where you set your mind is essential in your walk before the LORD. In order to push out confusion and live and walk in perfect peace your mind must be steadfast. If your mind is steadfast, fixed or stayed on yourself, your problems, the problem people in your life, or on anything else, you can’t have this perfect peace. Satan loves to get our minds on anything except the LORD! He loves to get you to a place of confusion. He loves to get you to act on your decisions in your own wisdom and strength. He loves for you to have your mind steadfast on everything other than God and His purposes.
 
There is no reason for you to have confusion in your life today. Give your area of confusion over to God today. Set your mind on Him and begin to trust in him, lean on Him, let His thoughts be your thoughts, let His ways take the place of your ways. If your decisions have brought you to a place of confusion, then ask for forgiveness for trying to do it your way, and then let God help you do it His way. Confusion is not fitting for a believer in Christ who is trusting, leaning and steadfast in their mind towards God.
 
I am excited for you today and the fact that you are going to be relieved of your confusion and set in a place of perfect peace; shalom, shalom! God Bless and have a wonderfully peaceful day and week.
 
Pastor Brad Tuttle