Don’t worry
about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and
thank him for all he has done.
Philippians 4:6 (NLT) This text was written by Apostle Paul
whom I have mentioned on many occasions.
Paul is trying to get us to understand that Christ gives us a measure of
his own peace when we make everything pertaining to life about prayer. However, this peace is conditional, we must
include prayer as a part of our decision making process. So often we have anxiety, worry, etc. because
we excluded God and that’s not a good thing because he knows our past, present
and future. Obviously there are common
sense decisions that we don’t need to include God in (e.g. Scope or Listerine;
Mac or Revlon; Tide or Gain, go to work or call in sick, watch television or
read, etc.) However, the more complex
decisions, those that stump us are when we should include God, for example: multiple job offers; relational situation;
finances; health; etc.
Victory
Thought: The exception to the common
sense rule is when you are unsure about decisions that are life threatening; life
changing or you’re trying to make the best decision due to limited finances,
etc.) The bottom line is that we can ask
God about any and everything, but we don’t have to remain in a state of
paralysis about the basics, that’s why God equipped us with common sense and
the Holy Spirit.
While
we don’t want to over-spiritualize our situations (for lack of a better term)
because it is important to have balance, but God is not going to do things for
us that we can do for ourselves. For
example: you want to get out of debt he is not going to stop you from charging
the outfit or tools you don’t need; or make you use the extra money you got
from overtime on your monthly credit card payment. However, if pray for a strategic plan, use
common sense and self-control he will guide you.
We
cannot obtain the Christ centered peace as described in Philippians 4:6 as
described by Apostle Paul making decisions on our own and then expect to have
peace behind them if he wasn’t included in the process. He loves us enough to help us when we make
the wrong choices, but he doesn’t expect us to keep making those types of
mistakes (excluding him). God literally
wants to help us with decisions, he doesn’t mind if we pester him, in fact I
don’t know it’s possible to ask him for too much, too often if your heart is in
the right place. You would be surprised
as to how much smoother life would be when we include God before, not after the
fact. Do you realize that God will give
you a strategic plan if you ask him?
Yeah, seriously he will.
We
know that God is love but he is peace as well and he desires that we have that
peace, not when we get to heaven but here on earth when we need it the most. Those times when we are facing the giants
that are trying to crush us, the enemy that is trying to kill us and ourselves
as we sabotage our own success (whatever that looks like for you). In fact Christ willed peace to us when he was
here on earth.
“I am leaving
you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the
world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid. John 14:27 (NLT)
Peace
(Webster): cessation of or freedom from any strife or dissension; the normal,
nonwarring
I found it ironic that the definition of the word
peace speaks more about nations and the world than it does with
individuals. While I am no expert with
national peace I do have a little more knowledge about individual peace.
The opposite of peace:
Torment (Webster):
to
afflict with great bodily or mental suffering; pain; to worry or annoy excessively:
to torment one with questions; to throw into
commotion; stir up; disturb.
Terror: intense, sharp, overmastering fear;
an instance or cause of intense fear or anxiety; quality of causing terror; violence
or threats of violence used for intimidation or coercion
Christ
centered peace is not something you can buy, sell, earn or steal. Well maybe
you can steal it through self-medication (food, drugs, alcohol, sex, etc.) but
it will only be temporary. Jesus said he
left this peace of mind and heart for
us because he knew that we would need it.
The lack of peace will rob you of one of your most basic essentials,
which is sleep to rest our minds, bodies and spirit from the activities we
engaged in earlier. However, if you are
being tormented with worry, anxiety, shudda cudda wudda thoughts, etc.
ultimately terrorizing ourselves causing depression, weight loss, inability to
work, function property, pray, be a witness to others, etc. what good are you
to your loved ones or the kingdom?
Philippians
4:6 encourages us to develop and maintain a prayer life. This means
trusting God to hear and answer our prayers which boils down to faith. Faith is foundational to our relationship
with God. Faith, trust, prayer and
thanksgiving are all intertwined. We pray
in faith and believe (trust) God will answer our prayers and then thank him in
advance for answering us.
We
can make a decision to stop terrorizing and tormenting ourselves right now, today. You can stop looking or an answer, this is
it. Moving forward pray about your
decisions in advance rather than asking God to do damage control. But be on guard for the torment: anxiety, doubt,
etc. and shut it down with statements like: God I thank you for giving me the
answer to my prayer(s); God I thank you that I am not going to worry; God I am
going to trust you and I give you praise in advance for the answer.
I’m
out of time, we’ll pick it up tomorrow
In
His Humber Service
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