Peace Instead of Anxiety

Sorry for the break in flow of entries, I have been severely under the weather the last four days. Hopefully, I am on the mend. - Blessings, Sam

This morning I am reading from Paul's letter to the Philippians 4:6-7 NIV:

[6] "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. [7] And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

This is such an excellent verse to sow into our lives. There is a place where we can live anxiety free and it is found within Christ Jesus, not in a bottle of Xanax. Paul is describing the same principle that Jesus spoke of Matt 11:28-32. If we give Him what we carry, He gives us what He has in return. In this case, if we are carrying anxiety, when we give it to Him, we will receive peace in return.

More importantly this peace will guard our hearts and minds from the onslaught of other things that cause anxiety. As we learn to trust in His peace and presence, we are strengthened in our ability to withstand other sources of anxiety. This has to do with our heart and mind coming to understand the Lord, His ways and how He relates to us. Its ultimately about identity! If we believe that God loves us, has only good planned for us, and is capable of overcoming any difficulty or hardship to bring us blessing we would have no reason to be anxious. If we know that He has already accepted us, has paid with His own life for us, and that nothing can separate us from His love, we should not worry about our salvation. If we know that we are His adopted children, heirs to everything and that all we need to do is ask, we would not worry about our needs being met.

This doesn't mean we won't experience difficult times, but as my honey says its all about our attitude. If we believe all the stuff I mentioned earlier, then when we encounter difficulty, we see opportunities for God to show Himself as our God, bringing Him glory, and blessing us in the process. As we grow in our ability to trust Him, He in turn can trust us with greater things as well.

My encouragement today is to learn to turn to Him constantly, releasing the things that I am carrying that I don't need to carry, so that I can receive from Him the peace, rest and comfort I need. These are the types of heavenly transactions He wants us to learn about and grow in, as we walk out our relationship with Him.