How would your world be different if you trained your mind to look at the best? How would your heart be different if, every time you felt a little anxiety, you named it and prayed about it with thanksgiving? This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. I invite you to get a Bible and work through the prayers, scripture reading, questions, and devotional reading below. May the Lord bless you as you do so. And may the Spirit of God work in each of us to shape us to be a little more like Jesus, today.

— Praise God with Me: (1)
God of all faithfulness,
you have opened the gate of mercy for your people
and are always ready to welcome those who turn to you.
Look on us in your compassion,
that we may gladly respond to your love
and faithfully walk in your way
through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

— Let us read and reflect on Scripture:
A little background: As already mentioned, the church in Philippi was a good church with a few problems. Here, Paul invites the whole church to adopt disciplines and practices of thinking and responding that will lead to peace, joy, and contentment. Can you imagine what would happen if we did this? Read the passage in full and answer the questions.

Come Holy Spirit, help us to remember who we are and who you are!
Philippians 4:4-13 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, with prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God and the peace of God which transcends understanding will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus.

— Answer these four questions:
What does this passage say about God?
What does this passage say about people?
As a result of this reading, what is one step God is inviting you to take?
Who is one person you will tell about that step today?

— With a Heart of Prayer, Let us Respond: (2)
In the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus,
we are assured that there is no sin so terrible
that God cannot forgive,
no hurt so terrible that God cannot heal.
God accepts, God forgives, and God sets free.
Receive the forgiving love of God.
Thanks be to God.

— Let’s Gather Wisdom from One Who Walked with Christ before us: (3)
Happy are they who give themselves to God! They are delivered from their passions, from the judgments of others, from their malice, from the tyranny of their sayings, from their cold and wretched mocking, from the misfortunes which the world distributes to wealth, from the unfaithfulness and inconstancy of friends, from the wiles and snares of the enemy, from our own weakness, from the misery and brevity of life, from the horrors of a profane death, from the cruel remorse attached to wicked pleasures, and in the end from the eternal condemnation of God.
We are delivered from this countless mass of evils because by placing our will entirely in the hands of God, we want only what God wants, and thus we find his consolation in faith and, consequently, hope in the midst of all sufferings. What weakness it would be then to fear to give ourselves to God and to undertake too soon so desirable a state!

— Let this glorify God today: (4)
Go in peace as the reaffirmed church of Jesus Christ.
We go to be his body in a broken world.
May the grace of God and the love of Christ go with you. Amen.

Sources:
(1) From The Worship Sourcebook, 2004, Faith Alive Christian Resources.
(2) From The Worship Sourcebook, 2004, Faith Alive Christian Resources, edited.
(3) From A Will No Longer Divided, Froncios Fenelon (early 18th Century)
(4) From The Worship Sourcebook, 2004, Faith Alive Christian Resources.