Welcome to week 1 of 14 weeks in the 100 Day Active Pursuit of Peace!
You’ll find all you need each week on one page. Engage with these devotions and write notes in your own notebook.
The components of the Pursuit are at the bottom of each page for the week. Links to the pre-recorded workouts are there as well as the Breathing videos.
Questions can be sent to me here.
Day #1, friend!
Read the whole chapter of James 4 in your Bible
I am so glad we're finally doing this! Now that you've read the whole chapter of James 4, let's move onto the devotion. The theme for this week is How to Live (we'll have this same theme a couple of times in the next 14 weeks!):
Finally, I want to encourage you to really take this seriously. How many things do we endeavour to do for ourselves that we shirk after the first 3 days or 2 weeks or a month? They get too difficult, they get boring, we lose our momentum. This Pursuit of Peace isn't just for us. It's for our relationship with God, the God who made us and loves us. It's also for those around us! How amazing would it be to be kinder, more loving, more gracious, more hospitable, and then have that ripple through our families, our workplaces, our churches, our neighbourhoods? The more we read about and get to know the Lord, the more we want to share the message of salvation through Jesus Christ (seriously, we are 200% more likely to share about our faith when we read our Bibles only 4 days per week and we are doing it daily!). Your work in this Pursuit, and the work of the Holy Spirit in you could cause a revival!! Praise God - let's go!
Day #2 - read 1 Thessalonians 4 in your Bible
Hello and welcome to Day #2! God's instructions for how to live were given to us through various voices in the New Testament. In these next verses, Paul is praising the people for loving each other well. But he says "Don't stop there".
If you didn't get everything done yesterday that you were meant to do for this Pursuit, put that behind you and start anew today. I want to remind you that movement is not just a privilege for those who enjoy it or who move well, it is a must for a fully functioning body. So, if you have to shove down the voices that tell you you don't have enough time, do that. Ten minutes of exercise, including walking, is all it takes to change your brain and your mood and many processes in the body. So, set that as your minimum and get to work. You have that amount of time, you can do it!
Day #3 - Read 2 Timothy 2 in your Bible
Good morning (or afternoon or evening)! The 2nd book of Timothy gives us yet more instruction on how to live. We get so confused nowadays with all the messages coming to us on how to live ("worry about yourself", "do what is right for you", "do everything you can to be happy", "don't worry about anyone else's problems, you have your own problems"). God breathed scripture with a whole different set of How-tos that can get us closer to God, closer to each other, and point others to Jesus.
Have you started your 21 day fast? Have you thought about what you might fast from? Originally, I thought I would be fasting from social media. But the more I prayed about it, the less that seemed like something I was supposed to do. I know now what I'll be fasting from and when I'll begin. If you haven't thought about it yet, start praying. You may have an idea of what you should fast from and the Lord may have something else in mind for you entirely. Give it some time if you haven't already started your fast. We won't be talking about this in specific with each other, as fasting is meant to be between you and God, but we can be praying generally for each other for steadfastness in our fasts, for revelation, connectedness with God in that time, and that each person will feel that their obedience is God's strength in them.
Day #4 - James 1
Hello! Keeping with our theme of How to Live (instructions, guides, exhortations, and more!), let's read the verses and do the devotion for today:
When you are doing your walks, take a moment to adjust (and readjust) your posture as you walk. Your parts are meant to be stacked in this order:
1. head over rib cage (crown of the head to the sky)
2. rib cage over pelvis (and ribs aimed down, not flared up and out)
3. pelvis over feet
So take inventory - are any of your parts arriving at your destination before the others (chin, nose or forehead or hips)? Everything should be stacked. This is how our core can work well, our pelvic floor can support and stabilize our pelvis and spine and support the pelvic organs, and our backs can stay strong and healthy.
Day #5 - read all of Philippians 2 in your Bible
Hey! How are you doing so far with the devotions? If you're finding them convicting...so am I! And I wrote them! This homework that we're doing isn't just for going through the motions. It's definitely meant to stir something in us. Something like conviction, or thought-provocation, or a feeling of hmmmm. Let's see what today is all about:
It is true that when we practice doing something without complaining, it makes it easier to do that thing without complaining next time. Even pushing through and doing something when you don't want to do it can change our brains and make us more resilient. God didn't design us to gripe - he designed us to praise him! So try flexing those praising muscles and see how it changes your heart today.
Blessings and Grace
Day #6 - Hebrews 12
Make sure you’re reading the entire chapter each day.
Have you been diligent so far in having one meal as broth-based soup or salad each day?
This requirement of the Pursuit is meant to simplify your life (good-bye major decision making!), while also adding important nutrients to your body. Try not to over-think it. Here are some things you can do:
1. use boxed broth if you don't have any homemade broth
2. add protein to your soups and salads (pre-cooked leftover fish, chicken, beef, hard boiled eggs, etc) to keep you fuller for longer
3. don't have a dressing you like for your salad? I have just been drizzling olive oil and lemon juice on it and adding salt and pepper. I happen to like the taste of veggies so I don't need a lot of dressing.
4. You'll almost never over-do it on healthy food, so don't be afraid to have a big salad or a big bowl of broth-based soup!
Day #7 - read all of 1 Peter 2 in your Bible.
I love for us to use our physical Bibles rather than an app, so grab your favourite Bible and mark this important verse! Don’t be afraid to mark your Bible - it’s not an insult to God - it is a way to interact with the words that he has given to you!
How are you doing with the physical activity part of the Pursuit? Are you finding it hard to discipline yourself to move your body? Why not try a YouTube video? When you follow along with a video, you can be sure the time will go quicker than when you work out on your own. Forget the fact that exercise of minimum 10 min is crucial for our mental health, our physical processes, metabolism, muscle building, and more. We also move in order to use these bodies well that the LORD has created! Think about that: he created the processes in our bodies down to the very cells where they happen. He invented muscle building, he was the originator of dopamine and oxytocin - those feel good hormones that are released during exercise. He is the creator of all planes of movement - up and down, back and forth, twisting. We are made to move. So let's appreciate that fact and get to it!
Have a great workout :)
Each day this week:
1. 2 walks (or 1 workout and 1 walk) per day, each one is minimum 10 mins in length. One is for discipline and enjoyment of movement and the other is for prayer
2. 1 meal is a broth-based soup or salad (it's not as hard as it sounds, feel free to add extras to that meal to make it satisfying)
3. 7 hours' minimum sleep (achieve this by getting to bed by 11pm)
4. 21 day fast (you decide when it starts and what it will be from, doesn't have to be food related)
Link for workout videos and breathing videos:
Password: ActivePursuitWorkouts