A vital part of our prayer lives is honest communication with God. We need to give voice both to our thanksgivings and to our frustrations. God already knows our thoughts, so we need to ask with boldness the questions that are pulling at our hearts.

We should also be prepared to receive unusual answers from God.

The scripture passage this week is just that kind of answer to my questions about the struggles and concerns in my life. God's answer calls me to set aside my particular questions and instead consider my situation from the perspective that we all as believers can share.

The first word that jumps at me is "peace". The forces that wear at me and the challenges that pull at me are no match for God, and as I focus on God instead of my circumstances, I can receive the peace that God provides. In just the same way that I am formed in the image of God, so too am I promised that I am a being of peace. I need to allow God to nourish that part of my nature in every situation, and that peace will answer my prayers.

The second word is "sanctify"—to make holy. God, through no power or goodness of my own, is making me holy. This profound gift is being poured into me even though I betray it or overlook it or try to substitute my own morality for God's holiness. There is only one reason that God would try so patiently and persistently to transform and sanctify someone as stubborn and frustrating as I, and that reason is love.

The third word is "preserved", coming from a Greek word that means to watch over and to guard. I so often forget that God is watching over me, and I deceive myself when I allow situations to challenge and threaten me. I may be surprised by life's twists and turns, but God, ever vigilant, has already scouted the path ahead and already has a plan for me, if I will simply ask for and receive it.

The words translated as "completely" and "blameless" both have their root in the Greek word holos, meaning whole, complete, entire, or throughout. God will not stop in making me holy until I am wholly God's. God will not merely protect what I am today, but will protect the complete and holy "me" that God intends me to become. This is not a matter of a degree of success, and there is no "passing grade" in the transformation that God is doing. God's holy will never fails and never ceases until God's complete objective in me will be met.

When I consider that God is so faithful, so loving, so dedicated to my success, and so patiently gracious, my own circumstances seem much smaller. When I dwell solely on problems, I can see nothing but the problems. Thinking instead on what God is doing in my life makes all the difference.