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Philippians 4:6-7: 6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;
7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
The above scripture contains some very important instructions on how to remain in peace. First of all, it instructs us to pray about everything. Especially the things that cause us anxiety. If anything is making us concerned, not sure, feeling a sense of dread, instead of feeling anxious we should bring it to God in prayer. Not only should we pray about it, we should give thanks for the answered prayer. While we are at it, we can also give thanks for all our blessings. By bringing to mind our blessings, we are reminding ourselves of how good God has been to us. We recall how many times in the past He has answered our prayers and made a way when we could not see one. Thanksgiving activates our faith.
Verse 7 states the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard our hearts and minds. In other words, we will experience a supernatural peace. Someone once described it as “heavenly Novocain”. It is a feeling of calm and removal of stress that is supernatural. I remember specific instances when I felt anxious and experienced this supernatural peace. I was almost to the end of my pregnancy when my doctor told me that he wanted to perform a c section that afternoon. This caught me totally off-guard. I started to feel really anxious and decided to pray about it. Immediately a feeling of absolute peace came over me. I knew that everything was going to be ok…and it was.
We have to train ourselves to pray about anything that causes us anxiety. The bible tells us that we have not because we ask not. Wishing and hoping is not prayer. Prayer moves God. God is willing to assist us whenever we need His assistance, however, we may not experience this unless we invite Him in. Don’t worry that God is going to say “Oh no it’s her again”😊 This will never happen. He wants us to turn to Him for help whenever we are in need.
Sometimes we open ourselves up to false information that causes anxiety. The news media sometimes does not accurately portray what is happening in the world. Social media is also capable of the same. While it is good to know what is going on in the world, we can sometimes be misinformed. An overdose of negative information can cause us to become anxious. We have to determine how much is too much. We have a pipeline to God, as His dear children, and can pray for others and for the world. Once we pray, we have to trust God. We have to leave things in His hands knowing that He is all knowing and fully capable of intervening in the affairs of men, in accordance with His will.
Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Once we are familiar with how God sees us and what He has promised us, we can pray with confidence and thank Him for answered prayer, before we see the answer.
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