God has clearly spoken. He says be anxious for nothing. He says pray about everything
The Necessary Habit of Replacing Anxiousness with Prayer and Thanksgiving
Philippians 4:6-7
(Children's Sheet for Sermon Interaction is at bottom. Notes are throughout sermon.)Please turn to Philippians 4:6-7. We will be in Philippians 4:6-7. As you are turning there, I want to point out that anxiousness, chronic worry, and anxiety from stress is something that plagues our society on an epidemic scale. How many of you realize that this is one of the benchmarks of our generation? I read a news article the other day that revealed an amazing statistic from a nationwide study that was done recently. I'll quote the opening,
"Forty-eight percent of Americans say they're more stressed now than they were five years ago, and the same percent report regularly lying awake at night because of stress, according to a new study by the American Psychological Association. Stress, continues to escalate, and it's affecting every area of people's lives," said Russ Newman, a psychologist and executive director of the APA."
The fact that stress is keeping people from sleeping at night is bad enough, but, according to the study, the anxiousness from stress also leads to things like fighting with family members and loved ones, to drinking alcohol, to giving up on working out and exercising. Long term consequences of bad health are being seen because of this trend. They range from fatigue, to obesity, and even heart disease. 54 percent of the 1848 people studied nationwide, said their stress and anxiety has lead to fighting with people they love. Eight percent said it has led to divorce. More than three-quarters of the respondents said that stress and anxiety, is making them sick. 44 percent report getting headaches because of the anxiousness produced from stress. 34 percent report getting upset stomachs. 17 percent say that it makes them grind their teeth. Forty-three percent said that to deal with it, they eat unhealthy junk foods, or they eat too much food. One third say they lose their appetite and start skipping meals.
The results of this study are remarkable, but not very surprising. There is an epidemic of anxiety produced from stress. Something else that is not surprising is that there is money to be made in the stress and anxiety field. I read one advertisement that said it would free you from anxiety, depression, excess stress, and tension with their patented and proven effective subliminal recordings. Supposedly you listen to their subliminal messages and you will be cured. Another advertisement promoted what they called, the answer to anxiety. The advertisement goes on to assert that you can conquer anxiety without drugs. A Doctor claims that he developed software that can repattern, what he calls, your unconscious blocks to freedom. The advertisement said that the incredible software has a no-risk, one year, money back guarantee. I also found a nutritional supplement that said that today's preferred treatment of stress related disease is not a new miracle drug, or even significant life-style changes; It is nutritional supplementation derived from common items we consume every day. My guess is that caffeine is not one of those common items. Then there are the big pharmaceutical company drugs. Every year, billions upon billions of dollars are spent by people on pills to conquer their anxiety. All these things are offered by the world to overcome the anxiousness that people have, and yet the statistics show that the supposed cures that people keep touting, are actually failing. People are anxious, they are getting more anxious, and they aren't getting over it. Further, the things that promote anxiousness are increasing at break neck speed in our fast paced contemporary world.
So, what do we do about it?
God has some things to say to us about being anxious in His word. God has the remedy, and He wants us to practice it. Paul directs us to it in our passage. Please read it with me now, starting in verse 6,
"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 comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:6-7
Please prepare your hearts to receive the preaching of God's word--to listen, to take it in, to digest it, assimilate it into your soul, and then live it out. The theme of this sermon is,
The Necessary Habit of Replacing Anxiousness with Prayer and Thanksgiving
[prayer]
Our God knows everything. He knows everything about you. He knows everything about what you go through. God also knows whether you get anxious, when you get anxious, and why you get anxious. God knows this, and in His knowledge of these things He directs Paul to write,
"6 Be anxious for nothing, ..."
@1 Being anxious means to worry. God says be anxious for______________.
The Greek word that Paul uses, that is translated as anxious here, is also translated as worry. It has the contextual implication of excessive worrying, great concern, and strong apprehension. Peter uses the Greek word that is similar. It is where Peter says to cast all your anxiety on God, because He cares for you. When Paul says be anxious for nothing, he has a certain understanding in mind. For us, we can think of anxiousness in many different ways, but we want to know what God means.
Why?
Because we want to do what God is telling us to do. For example, we might think of anxiousness as a terrifying emotional state, like apprehensive fear sensations, or fright feelings, where you get scared emotionally. This could be a good explanation for what Paul is talking about, but this kind of fear feeling is a manifestation of what anxiousness produces. What I mean is that it is like the study that I quoted at the beginning. People lay awake at night and they can't sleep. Not being able to sleep is a manifestation from anxiousness, but it is not the anxiousness itself. So you might think of anxiousness as a kind of an emotional feeling, but this is not what Paul is talking about. Emotional feelings can accompany what Paul is talking about, but they are not the focus. Something similar that we might think of when we think of being anxious is a physical thing. We might think of our body having nervous manifestations like an inability to rest. We might think of a racing heart beat, or dizziness, or headaches, or stomach aches that seem to just sit there and won't go away. I don't know if you have ever had what is called a pit in your stomach, but that is what I am talking about. It is a feeling that is somewhat like you get when you go down a steep incline in a carnival ride, or when your car suddenly drops over a short hill and this hiccup of an inner wave flows through you, and you kind of gasp because of the sensation.
Have you ever felt that kind of sensation?
The anxiousness kind of this thing is more irritating and oppressive than the joy ride one, but both are kind of similar to each other. The uncomfortable anxiousness sensation seems like the downward incline goes on forever, and the pit doesn't go away. The physical manifestation might be like some of those things I mentioned from the study. You might not be able to eat because you have no appetite. Just the thought of food makes you ill. All of this is what people might think of when thinking of anxiousness as a physical manifestation. But just like emotional feelings, physical responses to anxiety are responses. What Paul is talking about is something else. Paul is talking about what produces the physical and emotional responses.
Paul is talking about anxiousness as a mental process.
He is talking about when you worry. It has to do with your mind. It has to do with your thoughts. He is talking about when thoughts of doubt; thoughts of helplessness; thoughts of defeat; thoughts of impending doom; or even thoughts of regret, and various other perturbing imaginations begin dominating your thinking process. You begin to worry, and fret. When you get these thoughts, then all the other manifestations follow. It is like there is a war going on in your mind. You try to get away from the thoughts, but they come back to haunt you. And it all has to do with your mind. Sometimes your thoughts race, and you can't seem to be able to stop them. Sometimes your thoughts are riveted upon one thing and it dominates your thinking process. Your mind gets overwhelmed. Your mind gets anxious. This is what Paul is talking about.
The other thing that Paul is talking about is that there is nothing that we are allowed to be anxious in. I think this is pretty easy to understand, but sometimes our flesh wants to argue with clear meanings. We want to find that exception clause somewhere that makes an activity that we do seem okay. A little illustration might help us here with looking for an exception. I'm going to ask a couple of questions, and I want us to try to respond to the best of our ability. The first thing I want you to do is try to speak and say nothing. What I mean by saying nothing, is don't make a sound. The next thing I want us to try and do is reach down and pick nothing up, and then hold nothing in our hands.
How far can you throw nothing?
Now, this little exercise may seem like it is absurd, but bear with me and let's do one last thing. Right now I want you to long for nothing with your whole heart. To be longing for nothing is not to be longing for anything. I suggest that this is what Paul means when he says to be anxious for nothing. This leaves us recognizing that we have a problem. Our problem is that there are times when we are anxious for something. God is not taken by surprise by this fact. God knows these things. And since God knows these things, God has given us His word to help us out with the remedy. So, we need to apply God's mind on the matter, through the power of the Holy Spirit, and we do this by applying His word to our own minds.
/1/
The first thing we need to apply toward the remedy that God prescribes for this, is to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, 2 Corinthians 10:5.
@2 God wants me to take my ____________ captive to obey Christ Jesus.
Jesus taught his students in His sermon on the mount, to quit worrying by recognizing God's love for them and provision in Matthew 6. Jesus was talking about worry that comes from our maverick thoughts that are not submitted to our great burden bearer. Jesus says don't worry and be anxious about your life. Jesus goes on and tells the disciples not to worry and be anxious about what they are going to eat or drink. He told them not to entertain thoughts that worry about what they are going to wear. Jesus wanted them to understand that the battle is in the mind, and when that battle is going on, it's time to cast it onto the shoulders of the burden bearer. Whenever you and I worry, what is going on is that we are trying to bear it all ourselves, and we can't do it. In our flesh, we are getting focused upon our circumstances rather than upon the God of our circumstances. We are letting our circumstances take our thoughts captive instead of us capturing them for our Lord.
/2/
The second thing we need to see for applying toward the remedy that God prescribes for this is that while we are taking every thought captive, we need to think about how God thinks about us. Jesus went on preaching in Matthew 6. He tells His students that the birds don't plant seeds, or reap a harvest, or gather up and store food, but our heavenly Father feeds them. Then Jesus makes the big point. He asks,
Aren't you worth a lot more than birds?
What God is wanting you and I to do is recognize this in our thinking. We are told over and over again to be,
"7 casting all your anxiety on Him,
[and the reason is]
because He cares for you." 1 Peter 5:7
@3 In Christ Jesus, my God really ______________ for me.
/3/
The third thing we need to see in applying the remedy that God prescribes for this is that our value to God does not change in the critical moments. In other words, you need to recognize your great worth, and value to God, but you need to do it at the critical moment when you are stressed by the things of this world. When all is seemingly a chaotic mess of relentless badness, we can very easily think we are worthless; we are failures. But this is a lie, and the lie will come at the critical moment. Even if you don't feel like it, and even though there is a storm in your mind, (This is very important) you need to recognize your great value to God by accepting that you are an expensive treasure to Him that He cherishes. The only way you can do this is through faith. You need to have faith in the fact that you are a priceless treasure that God specifically purchased with the greatest price ever paid for anything. This is you. So, you may be getting anxious. You may be pushed to the edge where you may even be wishing you were dead, or, that you were, at least transported to a tropical paradise--and you could just run away from it all and live happily ever after in compete blissful absence of any stress. Of course, that daydream is an idealistic fantasy. But, you may be thinking that you are a complete failure in your job, in your family, in your friendships, and in your Christian walk. Maybe you think you are failing in raising your kids. I know a lot of folks who think they are failing at homeschooling their children. They get overwhelmed, and so they think they are failures. The point is that this is a critical time. It is the time where you need to look at yourself in the midst of whatever you are going through and see yourselves the way God is seeing you. You are a beautiful, precious, jewel to Him.
Do you realize your worth?
You are worth the price of the god-man being tortured and crucified for you, and don't you ever forget it.
/4/
The fourth thing we need to see in the remedy that God prescribes for this is that God is here as our caretaker. Because we are in Christ Jesus, He really does, (as Paul says in few more verses), provide all of our needs according to His riches in glory, Philippians 4:19. Jesus, in the same way, continued to preach to His students that God is their provider.
@4 In Christ Jesus, God is my _______________.
You are worth a lot to God, and because of that fact, God provides for you. He will not leave you nor forsake you. Worry does not add a single hour to your life, Jesus says in Matthew 6:26. Worry doesn't provide clothing. God clothes the grass with beautiful flowers in a more elaborate display of riches than Solomon ever had. Jesus continues to give the encouragement that we need to hear with spiritual ears,
"But if God clothes the grass of the field like this, which is alive today, and tomorrow is thrown into a fire, won't He clothe you even more?" Matthew 6:30
Even if you don't feel like it is true in this one particular circumstance you are going through, because there is a storm in your mind, you are in the critical moment, and so you need to recognize that God is your provider. Sure, you know it when everything is going great, right? You will even dance by the refrigerator magnet that says that God provides all my needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus while you toss that happy salad. You have the bookmark that says that you are a King's kid. When we think about these things in the cruising moments, it is easy. They are the cruising moments because we are cruising along in our Christianity. But we need to be ready for the crushing moments. Unlike the cruising moments, the crushing moments are the critical moments. But we need to believe these things already, while we are cruising along. You see, what you learn and believe while cruising is what you are storing up for the crushing storm. You need to have faith in this fact by taking any thought captive to the obedience of Christ that does not want to embrace this fact just because your circumstances have changed. I hope you are seeing my point.
/5/
It is the fifth thing we need to see toward the remedy that God prescribes for this. The remedy for anxiousness is really a faith issue for you my dear friend. Jesus' sermon in Matthew 6, goes on and shows us that this is a matter of faith, and faith has to do with the way we think. Jesus goes on in the next sentence,
"You of little faith! 31 Don't worry then, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear for clothing?' --things the nations seek-- because your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33" But seek His kingdom first, and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 34" So don't worry about tomorrow; because tomorrow will take care of itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."
Isn't it interesting that Jesus says that the day has enough trouble of its own. Even Jesus recognizes that the day has trouble. Yes folks, God understands. But what Jesus means is that anxiousness comes from asking all these questions that we formulate in our minds. They are thoughts that have not been taken captive to the obedience of Jesus Christ. Proper thinking is to be anxious for nothing, by seeking God's kingdom first and His righteousness, and all these things will be added. Paul the apostle, is talking about the same kind of thing in Philippians. Paul is talking about seeking God by taking every thought captive and giving it over to God in faith, knowing that we are valuable to God, and our value doesn't change, and He is our caretaker. God wants you and I to recognize His sovereignty, even though we don't understand why things happen the way they do, or what exactly God is going to do. When God tells us to be anxious for nothing, what He means is that there is nothing that He has not allowed to be, and in the midst of what seems to be out of control, God is never truly out of control. There is not anything that you are going through where your Father doesn't know about what you want, and what you need. So, our minds need to be there too, but be there while trusting Him. We need to walk by faith and not by sight. This is why I say that Paul is not telling you to turn off your emotions, or to turn off some physical feeling your body is going through. It is all about faith where you take your thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ by being transformed by the renewing of your mind.
/6/
It is the sixth thing we need to see in the remedy that God prescribes for this. It is a certain way to proceed in the faith focus. The way to proceed with this faith focus, which is the God focus of your mind that replaces your anxiety, is where Paul tells us to go next in our text,
"6 ... but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God."
@5 God wants me to pray about ___________________, thanking Him, and telling Him what I want.
This is the TAP principle. What is the TAP principle? TAP is an acrostic for turning and praying.
TAP: Turn And Pray
--that is what we need to do. When I TAP in, what I am doing is turning from whatever it is that Kerry's mind is consumed with that I become anxious about, and I do it, literally, in faith, where I am moving my thoughts over to God's thoughts, and the way that Paul is telling us to do this is through the special privilege that we have. Our special privilege is that we are blessed be able to pray to our Father in the Spirit. It is like we sang this morning when worshipping our Father:
What a friend we have in Jesus; all our sins and griefs to bear
What a privilege to carry every thing to God in prayer
Oh, what peace we often forfeit. Oh, what needless pain we bear
All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer
Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged. Take it to the Lord in Prayer
Now think about this: Anxiousness is epidemic. If God says don't do it, then people are doing it way too much. Now let me ask you this;
Do you think God thinks that you pray too much?
Do you think that you are praying too much?
Let me ask you some more questions:
Do you pray enough?
Does God think you pray enough?
There might be a Christian that says they pray enough. There might be a Christian that says that they pray too much, but more importantly, God does not say these things about us. This is why God is telling us to turn and pray to Him by making our requests known to Him. God says,
"... pray without ceasing, 1 Thessalonians 5:17.
And this is what is so important about what Paul is saying here in Philippians. God already knows, in His infinite mind, what your requests are before you ask. But God's instruction to you and me is to get our limited mind off of our thoughts that are anxious, and on to the God of provision, stability, and love for us, and pray. This is why Peter says to be
"7 casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you." 1 Peter 5:7.
The other thing we need to recognize, is that Paul moves from saying that there is no area that you are allowed to be anxious about, (In other words, he says be anxious for nothing) then he moves on to saying pray about everything. What Paul is pressing here is the faith walk where you trust in God by relying upon God for every little tiny detail of your life.
Okay, let's get this process down: In the proper thinking process of the faith walk of turning and praying, where we TAP into our mighty God, Paul gives us two things to do. The first thing is to pray, and make supplications. Praying is talking to God. Supplication is when you petition God for something because you want it, or you think you need it. The second thing is have the attitude of thanksgiving as you make your requests known to God.
{a}
Let's look at the first thing God wants us to do when we TAP. Prayer and supplication are commonly used together in the New Testament. Paul tells the Ephesians to TAP in this way. He says to be,
"praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the set apart ones." Ephesians 6:18
Paul tells Timothy to TAP in this way.
"I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men," 1 Timothy 2:11
@6 God wants me to pray for _______ people.
Early Christian widows were already TAPing in this way,
"Now she who is really a widow, and left alone, trusts in God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day." 1 Timothy 5:5
Continuing in supplication and prayer in the Spirit, night and day, means is that we need to be in the ongoing, moment to moment practice of prayer, where we are always talking to God, and we are always asking God for things. You say;
But, won't all my requests get washed out?
No.
Won't it become irreverent because I won't be able to keep up with all the requests I ask for?
No.
Isn't it ridiculous to keep asking for things from God?
No.
God tells you to pray to him and petition him in consistent ongoing habitual communication where you TAP TAP TAP as much as you want to, which should be as much as you can. Jesus prayed over and over again for His grief to the point of death to be taken from Him in the garden. He was finally answered with a yes because of his piety, as we read in Hebrews 5:7. In the gospel we read of how an angel came down and strengthened Him when He was answered. Paul prayed over and over again for his thorn in the flesh to be taken away. The big point is that you need to pray. You say,
Yeah, but what do I petition God about?
There is so much I could ask Him for.
My requests could be endless.
God has told you the answer to these things already. The real question is:
Are we listening to God through His Word?
God says, "everything." Everything in prayer and supplication means everything, as long as it isn't sin. So, it is good, then, if your requests could be endless. Think about it. You want to make sure you cover everything don't you? God wants you to cover everything, so you should too. So, be obedient to God and pray about everything. Anxiousness is going to creep up on you and loiter in your mind if you do not take God for His word, and start making your requests known in everything. Our prayer lists should go on, and on, because God tells us to make it go on and on. There is no room for you to be anxious, but there is plenty of room for you to pray, petitioning, supplicating, asking, begging the Lord with your many requests.
Now, it shouldn't be too difficult to understand what your requests are. Your requests are simply the desires of your heart. Sometimes God will change your desires, but sometimes He doesn't. When you had those same desires before, maybe you were anxious about them. When you make them known to the Lord in prayer, you may still have those desires, but now you have started operating in faith instead of anxiousness. So, make your requests known to God. And don't worry about how trivial you think they might be, or how huge you think they might be, or how you philosophically think that God has ordained everything anyway so why pray, (which is a sinful way of thinking that rejects God's preceptive word to us concerning prayer). God instructs us,
"21 Isaac prayed to Yahweh on behalf of his wife, because she was barren; and Yahweh answered him and Rebekah his wife conceived." Genesis 25:21
"17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. 18 Then he prayed again, and the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit." James 5:17-18
@7 Elijah _________ that it would not rain, and it did not rain for three years and six months. Then he _________ again, and God brought rain.
These are just a few examples from the Bible. You can pray for revival in God's church. You can pray for an opportunity to share the gospel. You can pray for a parking place. You can pray for a spouse. You can pray for the whole course of a nation to change. The prayers of you, a single small person, can change a whole course of a nation. Nothing is too small, and nothing is too great for God. You can pray for physical healing. And the bigger point is that if our desire lines up with His desire, He will answer yes to our prayer, or even provide an answer that is bigger and grander than we imagined. By the way, God always answers every prayer. It may be a no answer. It may be a different answer than we wanted. It may be a yes answer. There are all kinds of ways that God answers prayers, but God always answers prayers. The main point for us on this, is that this is the first thing God is telling us to do--continuously TAP in to Him with prayer and supplication.
{b}
The second thing God is telling us to do goes along with the prayer and making your desires known; God wants you to ask with thanksgiving. He says it over and over again,
2 Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving;" Colossians 4:2
"... always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ" Ephesians 5:20
@8 God wants me to always give ____________ for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
16 Rejoice always; 17 pray without ceasing; 18 in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
Now think about this for a moment. Isn't most anxiousness a manifestation of ungratefulness with where God has us in life, or with what He has already given us? When you give thanks to your God, then you are not blaming Him for anything like He has done something less than perfect. You are showing appreciation for Him. This is why thanksgiving is just as much a part of your thoughts as anxiousness is. But thanksgiving is the opposite of anxiousness. Praying with thanksgiving is worship, trust, and appreciation where we give glory to the sovereign God that he deserves. From my own experience, when I am complaining, I don't find myself thanking God. In those times, my worship of God is diminished. Then what has happened is I have started robbing God of His glory that He desires from me by the Spirit. I have to be obedient to the Spirit, turn from my complaining over to thanking God, and when I do, I am back in worship of Him, and I am back in Holy Spirit led glorification of my Lord. It is the difference between the faith walk and the sight walk. It is the difference between being carnally minded, and being spiritually minded.
This lead us to verse 7, but before we go there, I want to go into a little American history as it relates to the passage we are learning from. How many of you know that in 1952, The National Day of Prayer, was created by a joint resolution of the United States Congress, and signed into law by President Harry Truman? I didn't know that until I did some research for this sermon. For those of you who don't know, the National Day of Prayer is an annual observance that is held on the first Thursday in May. Fifty years later, on April 26, 2002, President George Bush made another official proclamation concerning The National Day of Prayer. In that proclamation, Bush said,
"On this National Day of Prayer, I encourage Americans to remember the words of St. Paul:"--GW Bush
Bush went on to quote Philippians 4:6, which is the first verse of the first half of our passage that God is teaching us great truths from. The part Bush quoted is:
"6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God." Philippians 4:6
This is a beautiful verse from our Lord to us. We need this verse. We've been learning from it. But this verse is inseparably married to the verse following it. When considering this verse as a broad declaration for people in the world, of the world, to pray, it is vitally important, that verse 6 be quoted with verse 7. Bush did not quote the second part of the passage, which results in emptying the passage of its power. The reason why I say this is because the second part of this passage specifically indicates that this prayer passage is all about Christians who are the elect in Christ Jesus. In other words, this passage is not for a nation of apostate Jews, Hindus, Muslims, New Agers, deists, and agnostics to pray. This is God's word to God's people alone. It is relegated for those who are of a heavenly kingdom, where our citizenship is in the kingdom of Christ. But this United States is not a Christian nation, and so this is why an anti-Christ Hindu led this apostate nation's Senate in prayer less than a year ago on July 12, 2007, and when three of God's true children, (in Christ Jesus) prophetically publically opposed the blasphemous action, they were arrested. When Paul gets to verse 7, he is saying that when you turn and pray, and you petition God, and you give thanks to Him in faith and worship, then
" the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."
@9 When I pray in faith, and I ask God, and I thank God, He will guard my heart with _____________.
This is the rest of God's revelation. This is what happens to you in Christ Jesus, when you (his true child) truly cast all your anxiety upon God in faithful prayer, with thanksgiving. Paul says that the peace of God will guard your hearts in Christ Jesus. This word that Paul uses here--Guard, in the Greek, is a Roman military term used of soldiers on guard duty. The Philippian's were used to Roman guards being all over their city. They were stationed everywhere, guarding the interests of Rome. What Paul is doing here is telling us that God's peace is like a soldier. When we turn from our anxious thoughts and make them known to God as requests with thanksgiving, then peace is like a soldier that is sent by God to guard your Christian heart and mind. You and I must make the great exchange in our minds for this guard to be sent. You must TAP, and then the guard comes. You and I must give up on anxiousness and give it over to God. Let that peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, come and stand strong like a sure, stable, protecting guard of your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. If you think you don't trust God, then confess your lack of trust to God, pray to Him and thank Him. When you do that, then you are trusting God. If your mind persists in anxious thinking, consider it a signal to you that you need to start the process again. When you are dwelling in the faithless place, you are not dwelling in the secret place of the most high. You have forgotten your value. You have forgotten that God is your provider. So if your thoughts persist in anxiousness, consider it as a signal to start the process again. Confess your lack of trust, and with prayer and supplication let your request be made known to God. What your doing is continuing to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ by bringing your mind into alignment to God's word. You are being faithful because you are obeying God's Holy Spirit. You are not practicing some psychological exercise in denial. You are trusting in God in admital by having a special relationship with Him on a daily intimate basis. You are seeking the God who is over your circumstances. I urge you my brothers and sisters, as you leave here this morning, and as you go about this week, and on through the rest of your life, be daily, moment to moment, nurturing the practice of taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Be thinking about how God thinks about you. He loves you. He sees His grace all over you. Recognize your value to God in the critical moments. Be recognizing that God really is your provider. Agree with God's word and believe it. Believe 1 John 5:4;
"... this is the victory that has overcome the world--our faith." 1 John 5:4
In these things, seek to be anxious for nothing; be praying about everything. Let God know what you want, and what you think you need, and do it with thanksgiving for what you have, and for whatever you get.
@1 Being anxious means to worry. God says be anxious for______________.
@2 God wants me to take my ____________ captive to obey Christ Jesus.
@3 In Christ Jesus, my God really ______________ for me.
@4 In Christ Jesus, God is my _______________.
@5 God wants me to pray about ___________________, thanking Him, and telling Him what I want.
@6 God wants me to pray for _______ people.
@7 Elijah _________ that it would not rain, and it did not rain for three years and six months. Then he _________ again, and God brought rain.
@8 God wants me to always give ____________ for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
@9 When I pray in faith, and I ask God, and I thank God, He will guard my heart with _____________.
