Jay Passavant

Greetings, friends!

Welcome to the inaugural contribution of what will affectionately be known as “Dr. Jay’s blog”!

At the encouragement of a number of my dear partners in ministry, I’m going to attempt to communicate a little bit of my heart with you every day, Monday through Friday, based on what I believe the Spirit of the Lord is revealing to, through, and about me.

Let me say from the beginning that I welcome your response and trust that we’ll see this as an opportunity to dialog through this medium as well as to share some of my perspectives and insights born of over thirty years of public ministry.

As many of you know, Monday was my birthday. (I forget which one it was…!) However, I find that a couple times a year it is a valuable discipline to set aside some time and evaluate just how “life” is going and especially how I’m doing relative to my walk with Jesus and my commitment to trust Him in all things.

I was convicted by a scripture that I’ve been quoting a lot frequently in John 14:1 where Jesus says “Let not your heart be troubled…” Candidly, I’ve been doing some of that lately; that is, letting my heart be troubled. I find that circumstances have a way of getting into one’s mind and quickly traveling into the heart where they create a sense of unrest and dissonance that causes me to break fellowship with the One who promises that He has all things under control and is actually working them together for good in my life! (Romans 8:28). In fact, the more I worry, the less I’m trusting and the more I’m evidencing that I feel I must be in control since apparently Jesus is not.

I know this is much easier said than done. Circumstances are difficult and life does have its challenges. However, what I have resolved to do, once again, is to take those matters immediately to the Lord and place them at the cross where Jesus clearly and eternally demonstrated that He is willing to pay whatever price is necessary for my total salvation; body, mind, and spirit. When I do that, and follow it with some expressions of praise and worship, I find that those problems and issues gain a different perspective.

Friends, wouldn’t you say that perspective is of enormous value in this life. When we see our problems and put them in perspective to what really matters in the long run it helps us to have the strength to make our way through even complicated and difficult issues.

Monday was an opportunity for me to re-commit myself to not “let my heart be troubled” and so I began a new day laying those difficult things before the Lord and actually sensing that He was lifting the burden from me. As a result, I’ve already begun to grow in my confidence that the Lord is going to work things out not just for me, but for everyone that’s being effected by those matters which caused me to be “troubled”.

I hope you’ll give this simple exercise a try and see if it works for you as well.

Blessings,

Dr. Jay