3 Simple Steps to Finding Inner Peace

3 Simple Steps to Finding Inner Peace

By: L. M. Craig

Nearly every day I bet you get asked, "How are you?" and I bet I can guess that your response is "I'm fine" when in reality you aren't. How did I know?

I do it too.

So often we go through life blindly running through the motions, unable to truly take in a person or a moment because we've made ourselves too busy to do otherwise. I don't just mean our schedules, I mean our minds. Our minds are cluttered with responsibilities to fulfill, tasks we need to accomplish, dreams we wish we could make come true, and a million other thoughts that run a gauntlet of emotions.

How many of your thoughts are positive each day? How many are negative?

Most of us don't even realize how much time we spend wading through negative thoughts because we have the ability to swim to shore and dry the negative off but sometimes the negativity is too much. We find ourselves caught up in a riptide of negative thoughts that carries us further and further into those dark waters of despair and before we know it we feel like we are sinking.



When you allow the negative aspects of our day to take hold of us we forfeit God's peace. Without even realizing it we give negative thoughts the power to shake our faith. If we "let go and let God" and refuse spend time focusing on the negative, on the things we cannot change, on our own negative self-talk, we will learn to inhale serenity and exhale the thoughts that trouble us. In other words, negativity will drown your spirit, if you let it but God's peace will uplift your soul.

"God grant me the serenity 
To accept the things I cannot change; 
Courage to change the things I can; 
And wisdom to know the difference."

The Serenity Prayer has always been one of my favorites. It's like a roadmap to inner peace. The first part of the prayer makes it sound so simple, accept what you cannot change. Okay. It's the second part that had me stumped for a while until the obvious answer was made clear.

Let me ask you - Have you ever noticed that sadly, it usually takes a major event to slow us down and make us really look or listen to the world around us. Or rather, it takes a nearly tragic event for us to stop, hit the reset button and be present.

Well, I've found the same is true of our faith. How will we have the courage to change what we can and the wisdom to know the difference without God?

When we become too busy to talk to God we are too busy to receive him. God, just like any parent, wants us to keep an open dialogue with him. He wants us to share our highs and lows, even though he already knows them because he wants to help us heal. Having a conversation with God should be as necessary as having your first cup of coffee.



I don't know about you but I love that first cup of coffee in the morning. Truly, I look forward to it. Our coffee pot chimes letting me know that a fresh cup of joe is ready for me to enjoy it, before the anticipated and hopefully coordinated chaos of my day begins.

Three years ago, when negativity seemed to be swimming all around me I was unknowingly offered a life preserver in the shape of a Bible. A post on Facebook announcing a study in the Book of Numbers caught my attention. The study was to run from Mon. - Fri. and claimed to only ask that participants read one chapter a day. I was skeptical but willing to give it a try. That Bible study changed my life, my mental perspective and ultimately my relationship with God.

Do you have a favorite Book? A story that stuck with you throughout your life? A narrative that changed you so much that it woke you up, or made you self-reflect?

That's what the Bible can do. When you make time to read and study God's Word it becomes apart of you, binding you to Him.



So, this week I pray you find inner peace.
1. Let go and Let God
2. Pray Daily
3. Read your Bible

God Bless,
L. M. Craig