“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7
As I read this text I am reminded I must first get my anxiety under control before I formulate my prayers if I want certain results. I just noticed anxiety over many issues are at the top of my prayer list. The ‘what if syndrome’ is real important in my mind. I am good at reading ahead and liking the results and forgetting to back tract for the goal.
Let me try here, 1) get over myself 2) formulate prayers from eyes of faith and not ‘what ifs’ by accusing God of slack amd lack 3)then by obeying step one and two, gearing into faith, Peace shows up 4) Bang, out comes the security guards to tract my daily steps while God and host negotiate on behalf of prayers and supplications that were presented to God by me 5) And, as Peace, greater than peace, guards my mind so I can keep thanking the Almighty for His answers by having clear understanding that my supplication =’s humility.
How can I get so much out of a few words written? Then leave here and forget it? The writer of Philippians knew as a good lawyer knows we need a summary. He gave us one in verses 8-9 same chapter being 4. Read on, “summing it all up, friends…”
thedailylily.com 
“How can I get so much out of a few words written? Then leave here and forget it?”
A distraction attack. It may interfere with carrying out vs 8 and 9.Distractions can come in devious ways, almost like unexpected detour signs that be time wasters that keep one from arriving at their prescribed destination in a timely and orderly manner. Could come through things and/or people.
Self-centeredness and preoccupation with trivialities DO distract us from the promises of God. And we DO “forget it”. The thought of anxiety or fret must mean more to us than the peace that passes all understanding. And verse 8 tells us to keep our minds on lovely, pure, holy, praise-worthy and virtuous things. Verse 9 tells us that if I practice verses 6 & 7, I can have an undisturbed mind. Hmmm… Maybe some of us don’t know how to function with an undisturbed mind. And yet, all the time, God has prepared all this for us but we are just too busy with trivia to take it seriously.
All I can think is, ” all dressed up with no where to go!” We have plenty of places to go but where do they go. Seems like dead end roads all around. Wonder where the freeway is?
According to established leaders & end time prophets in the Body of Christ maybe we had better take off our glad rags and put on “sack cloth & ashes” & start to pray unceasingly for the Body of Christ and our nation.
Looking at other scripture references for Verse 7 – 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7 I find that we can not be proud, or rude, or self centered. We can not be easiy angered nor keep a record of wrongs. We can not delight in doing evil, don’t be untruthful to one another (don’t lie). Ephesians 5:25 says each of you must put off falsehood again (don’t lie) and speak truthfully to his neighbor. 2 Corinthians 8: 21 says Do what is right in the eyes of the Lord and men. Deut. 16:20 Follow justice (quality of being fair) and justice alone , so that you may live and possess the land the Lord your God is giving you. James 3:17 says Wisdom from heaven is first of all pure and then peace loving. (Pure means free from contamination, wholesome and untainted by immorality). The final verse 9 scripture reference is Heb. 13: 20 Says that Jesus who is the great Shepherd of the sheep who equips you with everything good thing for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to Him through Jesus Christ, to whom we give the glory.
OMG Sounds like altar time to me if we aren’t in compliance with the above. Our night /day thus become a virtual noisy ferris wheel of thoughts that hinder any heart talk to God for the world or others. If God can’t look on sin why would he hear our prayers through our ferris wheel chatter. We run here and there – to coffee shops, malls, and restaurant, if not these we find ourselves running around our tables just like our minds accomplishing nothing. If we are to walk in peace we have to place all before Jesus asking God’s help for the web of sin we have spun. Then we can walk in peace even when the world around us is turning upside down. When we do that we know we have achieved all Jesus as a shepherd wants from us as sheep of his pasture.
Oh I forgot to add if I think about the what ifs about the news I see lately and don’t do what the scriptures say to do or not to do then I’m really in a mess. Just shows me everyday to lay everything at the sheperd’s feet. Jesus will give you the peace through it all. Our stability and peace does not depend on life but on God.
Have you ever stopped and given thought to just how difficult and time consuming it may be and how much it cost us to climb out of ‘ a mess?’ And, some of the mess (Rena’s words 🌚) it seems we never walk 🐾) out of! Hopefully, at times we can stagger into ⛪️,
Also, Rena talks about a round and round mind among other debilitating behaviors. Have you ever been the clear thinking one trying to help one that was on the “Ferris Wheel” and they turn the controls up to high speed and the controls lock with no stopping power and then the gas runs out and crash, clash and down goes their pipe dream? Or, been the one that crashed? It’s selfishness! Purely self rejection which is Pride riding on its high horse! This is the way I read the good book.
“Have you ever stopped and given thought to just how difficult and time consuming it may be and how much it cost us to climb out of ‘ a mess?’”
Yes, I have, as personally I have observed consequences of past sins, though forgiven, leave consequences that create a tangled mess where it is arduously impossible to untangle it all. And since no one lives in a vacuum, actions have reactions that affect others that rob them and waste their time, energy, resources, etc that could and should be used in ways for others that will unselfishly produce something for God’s kingdom.
Oh, if we only would truly believe the Scriptures and precious promises….just believe. Our distrust of what God promises in His Word grieves the Holy Spirit of the Lord. Those who belong to Him bring Him their ‘burdens’ for help and aid. Then after we have petitioned Him with cries and pleadings, “religiously” take the burden back and continue to grouse over it and have anxieties as to the solution. How that grieves the Spirit of God!
One of the questions highlighted in today’s Baptist Sunday school quarterly that I attended said, “What keeps us from being more aware of our church leaders’ prayer needs?” It listed areas of their need as well as the sobering statistics published by the Francis A. Schaeffer Institute regarding the high numbers who deal with issues such as burn-out, fatigue, depression, etc, etc.
These are real burdens that our leaders have, so it seems that if we ‘determine and prioritize’ our prayer needs as the lesson suggested, that the focus will be on lifting their burdens up to the Lord persistently, rather than selfishly spinning personal ones. As one member so succinctly put it this am in class, “The devil rides the coat tails of pastors”.
I have never been the clear thinking one but took a chance on God, listened, took every step with God and did what the one who thought clearly spoke into my life what the Bible said on the situation I faced and got off the Ferris Wheel. It cost time, money, and often tears but God strengthening me in Faith. GOD is who He says He is and He will be at my side no matter what should come. I often think oh GOD I could never have enough resources to repay the person who spoke YOUR Truth into my life whom you sent to me and you GOD for what you God did for me during this time and on that cross at Calvary. It took time of the clear thinking one who intimately knew God, it took God’s personal interest and time in me, and time (years) of riding the same Ferris Wheel. Oh I hope I would walk in freedom and never return to that Ferris Wheel ride of death of spirit and soul and perhaps physical death as well. PUSH THROUGH and don’t continue to ride the Ferris Wheel of distruction would be my advice to anyone finding themselves on the same Ferris Wheel I was on.
Debi today our children’s pastor spoke as Pastor was not there. He spoke just about the same thing. Prayer and need for workers in the body of Christ. He spoke on March 10: 32: 46-52. The blind man Bartimeaeus was blind and always sat in his comfortable position on the side of the road begging for alms. When he heard Jesus was coming, he loudly shouted, “Jesus Son of David have mercy on me! Many of the people rebuked him and told him to be quiet. He shouted all the louder saying Jesus Son of David have mercy on me! Pastor pointed out that is the number one barrier to being heard is pride is. not saying a word. Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” Suddenly the tables changed and the others said to him, “Cheer up? On your feet! HE’S CALLING YOU. He threw his cloak aside and left his comfortable familiar area and directed his steps to where the voice came from. Jesus asked “What do you want me to do for you?” He said, “Rabbi, I want to see.” JESUS said go your faith has healed you. Immediately he followed Jesus never looking back to his comfortable familiar position he had for so many years. Pastor said what Jesus wants from us is a heart transformation which started with a determination of faith, a declaration of that faith, and then a demonstration of faith. Yes many jobs in the church. The prayers go up for the workers but just maybe we are to demonstrate our faith by doing. Then the church might not be looking for workers all the time and there just might not be so many beautiful Christians suffering burnout. And the one who demonstates a doing may just be blessed beyond belief by working for Jesus. One body and many parts which need to work together and move to go forward with Jesus.
In reviewing our Moses study in BSF we have learned so far that Moses was weak in the beginning but he became a great man of prayer and faith. He had courage to carry on for God in spite of difficulties, hardship, abuse, and rebellion. The question BSF followed up on was “Are we willing to learn what it is to make what is called “a long obedience in the same direction?” This takes us back to obey or disobey. We know what Moses did now it is our turn.
In conjunction with obey and disobey…. in Matthew 29-31, Jesus tells the parable of “obedience and disobedience’ about the father who asked his sons to go out into the vineyards to work.
“A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go work today in the vineyard.’ 29″And he answered, ‘I will not’; but afterward he regretted it and went. 30″The man came to the second and said the same thing; and he answered, ‘I will go sir’.
But he did NOT go and only paid lip service to his father.
Then Jesus asked the question, “which of these two did the will of the father?” In other words who obeyed? Was it the one who said he was very willing to go and acted very piously in response to his father’s request….but never made it to the vineyard; or the son who had bad attitude but changed his mind and his heart and went into the vineyard and acted on his change of heart? Of course his audience got the point of the parable. Obedience is action.
I found this quote by Diogenes which I think is pertinent to this parable and to many of us who say we are seeking to do the will of God but fail in action
Those who disobey do not know what they are missing from the Christ-life that is in us. Christ in us the hope of glory. We miss the GLORY!
“Those who have virtue always in their mouths, and neglect it in practice, are like a harp, which emits a sound pleasing to others, while itself is insensible of the music.”
― Diogenes
ps We miss the glory and anointing that comes from always doing the will of the Father.
MG, thinking of applications of today, the one who said Yes at first – could this be the ones who felt called to do the work of the Lord and went and got the education for all they wanted to do for the Lord and then as time went on they forgot their promises to the Almighty and decided the attractions of this world were wonderful. They settled in to the good life as they call it. Could they also have grown weiry of the good fight to remain a Christian and complacency was far easier as Satan let loose of them as they were not a weary to him any longer. How about the second one – one who said no at first, the one who as they went into the workplace found that they had a hole of emptiness that could not be satisfied by anything the world had to offer. Perhaps they found from experience that nothing but nothing is more satisfying than Jesus in their lives. He who frees and each day is an adventure with your dependence on Him. He is their Hope. God had brought them to the place where they needed to look up to Him as there was no HOPE in anyone or anything anywhere. They learned Jesus took “Hell for them” (phrase from one of my studies) so they may not have to suffer for their sins which they are so sorry for doing.
Not sure I get the last sentence as God gets all the glory when people’s hearts
do his will. Throughout my study of Moses, Moses kept saying to Pharaoh, “THIS IS WHAT THE LORD SAYS….” Moses letting old Paraoh know that God is control here, and so He is in our lives -Glory to God!
Rena, what I mean is that when we are obedient we please the Father and bring glory to His Name. In obedience the anointing can flow through us to others. But, when we disobey we grieve the Holy Spirit of God.
I do so want that anointing that comes from doing and living in the will of God.
Thanks MG
After reading the title and the blog. All I can say is…………..”Obey or Disobey”, looks like we are either doing one or the other. Would you agree?
Yes, Tammy, I agree and the Word of God agrees. The Lord God said that set before us is the choice of Life or death. Then He gives us the answer. “Choose Life”. A no-brainer for those who are in the Spirit. But for the rest we seem [SOMETIMES] to be standing before those two doors, like in a Game Show where the contestant doesn’t know what’s behind Door #1 and Door #2. But God has made it clear. He reveals to us openly in His Word the treasure that is behind Door #1. It’s love and forgiveness and joy and peace and healing and deliverance and godly fellowship and help in trials on this earth and glorious Heaven with Jesus after all that!!
Obedience brings the promise of a long life as in Eph. 6:1-3
And yet, [SOMETIMES] some of us still shuffle our feet between the two doors going “duh, hummmm..”
Thanks, MG, for your response. I sure want to walk in obedience to my Lord, but often times I know I don’t. I stand in need of what you have mentioned here that is behind door #1. Heavenly Father, help me to walk in obedience to your Word, in Jesus name.
Yes, I agree! No shades of gray in God’s art work! I don’t recall novels of Jesus entitled shadess of gray, do you?
No, I don’t Sara.
That’s a “GOD ONE” Sara! Fifty Shades of PURE WHITE LIGHT! Yah! The COLOR of RIGHTEOUSNESS.
Tammy! You chose the right door and you get the PRIZE of the High calling of God for your life!! I applaud and support you on your choice. I too want to walk in obedience with you, as we obtain the peaceable fruits of righteousness which that obedience to our LORD JESUS brings to our lives. Let’s GO for it!
Yes, MG, let’s keep encouraging one another and others, as we walk through life, for Jesus.
Tammy, That pleases the Lord when we walk as sisters & brothers in Christ Jesus’ Body of Christ.
So we support one another in prayer, in fellowship, please the LORD!!!! Yes!
We’ve got a good start!
In working on a study it brought into play that dependence and obedience to God go hand in hand. Sin is an attitude that is against God. Anything we do that denies Jesus Christ the right to be King in your life is sin. The attitude of a man who drinks and the man who preaches without the Jesus Christ as King directing is the same – sin.