His Peace

Don’t worry about anything but pray about everything. With thankful hearts offer up your prayers and requests to God. Then, because you belong to Christ Jesus, God will bless you with peace that no one can completely understand. And this peace will control the way you think and feel –Philippians 4:6-7

From the above verse, God commanded all his children to not worry about anything when we go through hard times and when we’re in a difficult season. We are commanded to pray instead. To pray instead of allowing ourselves to be overwhelmed with the cares of life. This verse commands and encourages us not to be anxious, or worry about anything.

It doesn’t mean that what you are going through will just vanish all of a sudden, no! But it does mean that when you come to God with prayer and with a thankful heart for what He has done in the past and bring the case to Him, He will give you His peace to cope and go through that season. God promises to give us peace that will guide and direct our emotions and thinking, on the right path.

In Philippians 4:6-7 God gave us a command to obey (Do not be anxious about anything), an application to make (Have a thankful heart and then bring your prayers) and a promise to claim (a peace that surpasses all understanding).

To receive that unconditional peace that only comes from God, we must pray according to how God commanded us to pray- having a thankful heart and then bringing our supplication and request to Him. We must pray according to His will.

• Coming to God with a thankful heart.

It’s hard when you are experiencing difficulties and now you must find what is good about where you are right now. But this is how the Bible commands us to come to God. Doing this forces us to sit , be still and reflect on what God has done for us. This helps us to magnify God and not our problems. It removes the cloudiness in our mind that makes the issue bigger than our God.

No matter how much you are going through, there is at least one thing that you can be thankful for. The fact that you can read & write etc is a big blessing- although you might see it as a common requirement in life- but there are still many people out there who don’t have that privilege. Find something in your life that God has done. Dwell on this and reflect on what God did, who God was for you then and use that to praise and fill the atmosphere of your heart with thanksgiving. By doing all this, you can enjoy God’s peace. The peace that goes beyond even our own understanding and our own reasoning.

• Coming to God with supplication and petition!

Now bring what’s on your heart to him and pray according to his will. This means that when you are praying you must pray for God’s will to be done and if it is that you have to go through what you are going through for his glory then let it be so. Praying according to the will of God for your life brings peace that surpasses all understanding.

The peace in which we receive protects us emotionally, mentally, and physically from the mindset of the devil. We are commanded not to allow the worries or issues of our lives to replace the heart of thanksgiving with which we are to come to God.

During difficult times it is not a free pass for us to conform to the ways of this world and backslide or to neglect to spend time with God based on our emotions and feelings. But rather it is a time to reflect, review, position or reposition ourselves to complete the test set in front of us.

Prayer:

I pray that you will not allow your feelings or emotions to determine how and when you are to pray and be thankful. But you will be thankful and prayerful in all circumstances and be reflective of who God was then, what He did for you and what He can still do today in your life. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.