Peace in Troubled Times

This is really a follow on from last week’s article on the armour of God.

The fact is that we’re living in a world that’s so out of sync that it’s easy for many of us to be anxious and worry.
In the last article, I tried to bring attention to the antidote for anxiety and worry.
By using the Ephesians 6:10 armour of God we can learn to stand firm against the attacks that can easily turn our minds into confusion, hopelessness and panic.

We can “Trust in the LORD with all our heart and lean not on our own understanding.” as Proverbs 3:5 tells us. In other words, we can cease trying to “fathom it all out” ourselves by turning our moment-by-moment challenges over to God, who is both willing and able to guide our footsteps toward our ultimate good.
He is in us, and we are in him if we have trusted our lives to Him. All the power and might that’s needed to have a sound mind are already within us.
We simply need to become aware of it and act on it by faith, taking it the Lord in prayer. Remember, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. The world needs to “see it to believe it”, we need to “believe it to see it”.

The letter to the Philippians may be one of the most practical, and most necessary’ letters we have in the New Testament. Paul the apostle didn’t write it to correct any doctrine or conduct, but he touched on all of the great and practical truths of the Christian life, including your secret power, your prayer life.

Philippians 4:6 tells us to Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

In other words: Worry about nothing; pray about everything.

This is a direct commandment, not a suggestion. Most of us will admit to our shame that we worry. We know the Bible says it’s wrong, even sinful, but we still do it.

We can now be encouraged to change our ways. Instead of worrying, let’s pray about everything.

Look at Philippians 4:6 again. Two little words have huge significance. The first word, “nothing,” is probably the most exclusive word there is in the English language. It excludes everything. We are not to worry about a single thing.

The reason we are to worry about nothing is because we are to pray about everything.

Just as the word “nothing” excludes all, the word “everything” includes all.

That means we are to talk to the Lord about everything in our lives.

Question: Do you think we ought to pray about the little things in our lives?” Answer: Can you think of anything in our life that is big to God?”

Hey, when we divide things in our lives as big or little, we are dividing things wrongly. All areas of our lives are very small as far as God is concerned. But even what we call little, He wants us to bring to Him.

As believers, we need to get into the habit of bringing everything to Him in prayer—excluding nothing.

So, these two little words are exact opposites. Nothing means nothing, and everything means everything.

When Paul says that a Christian is not to worry, he is not offering up some foolish “living life better” method of shutting our eyes to reality and denying that disease and sickness and death and trouble and pain are realities.

Paul doesn’t say we are to pretend those things don’t exist. Instead, we need to move the things we want to worry about into the realm of prayer. In doing this we’re taking that burden from our own minds and placing it onto the Lord. That’s exactly what He wants us to do!

I well remember a time when I spent many days, even weeks, trying to solve a programming problem. I couldn’t sleep. My mind was cluttered with the enormity of the problem. Everything I tried failed. It started to affect everything I did along with my health. I was getting no more than two or three hours of sleep a night and the rest of the time I was consumed with the problem.

One day out of desperation I hired a programmer from Ukraine or somewhere to look at the problem. He fixed it in 1 hour at a cost of one hundred dollars.

I tell you, my friends, that is exactly what Paul the apostle is saying here. When we tell God everything, it becomes His problem. We have the right as His children to go to Him in prayer and say, “This is something for You to handle” and then turn everything over to Him. Worry about nothing; pray about everything.

As I get older I believe more each day that everything in the Christian’s life should be taken to God in prayer, no matter what it is. He is our heavenly

Father, and we can talk to Him honestly. We can unburden our hearts to Him as we can to no one else.

What About Unanswered Prayers?

Paul continues urging us in Philippians 4:6, “…by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God”.

When we make our request, we are to thank Him right then for hearing and answering us.

“But what about the prayers He doesn’t answer?” you may ask.

My firm belief is that there is no such thing as unanswered prayer! God does answer prayer, and when you take your petitions to Him you are to thank Him because He is going to hear and answer.

If you are God’s child, you don’t have unanswered prayers. He always hears and answers.

I think our problem is that we don’t want God to say no to our requests. We certainly pout and rebel when no is His answer. We want Him to say yes to everything we take to Him. However, He’s not always going to say yes.

He’ll always hear and answer a request that’s brought to Him, but sometimes the answer is no.

One evening a father and his 10 year old son were taking a walk together. There was a big stone a little way ahead. The father decided to test his son’s strength and gave him the task of lifting the stone.

Well, the stone was too big for the kid. He tried everything but he could not move the stone. After wrestling with the stone for some more time he finally gave up.

With a look of despair on his face, he told his father, he’d failed.

The father asked his son, “Son, did you use all your strength?”

The son gave his father a puzzled look. Surely his father knew he’d put in all his strength trying to lift that stone.

The father asked his son again, “Son, are you sure you used all your strength?” The son again nodded.

The father bent down and said, “You forgot to use your biggest strength, me.”

This time the son tried lifting the stone with his father’s help and, it was no longer heavy.

Friends, do you think our heavenly Father is any less kind than a human father? When things break and believe me, they surely will, take it to Him and ask Him to put it back together. It may look like an impossible problem to you, but He will hear and answer you. If He says no, it is because that’s the best answer you could have.

I can illustrate that with a real, personal experience. My dad was a tough nut for sure, but I always believed he did what was best for me and my brothers.

As a kid, I yearned to go to sea. A couple of days after I turned 15, an English cargo ship berthed at the port where I spent a great deal of my time. I befriended the chief steward from the ship, and he told me that if I could get my father’s permission I could sign on as a junior steward.

I was beside myself with excitement until I mentioned it to my father who flatly refused his permission and no matter how hard I tried he would not budge.

Watching that ship sail without me was devastating.

I shunned my father for years over that and could never quite forgive him.

A number of my mates went to sea at about the same age and, over time, all of them became drug and alcohol addicted and ended up living in destitution. A seaman’s life was a tough gig back in the mid-1960s.

My father was worldly wise, and he knew what I could never have known at the time. I am totally convinced that had I sailed on that ship I would not have seen 21 years old. Thank God for my natural father’s decision and for sticking to it!

As much as my earthly father cared for me, my heavenly Father is infinitely more wise, loving, and caring.

Instead of saying that God has not answered our prayers, let’s say, “My heavenly Father heard my prayer, but He told me no, which was the right answer.”

We are to let our requests be made known to God with thanksgiving—knowing that, regardless of how He answers, it will always be the best thing for us.

Indescribable Peace

What will happen when we don’t worry but we pray instead?

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. -Philippians 4:7

Scripture speaks of many kinds of peace. We can have world peace through the person of Christ, the Prince of Peace. We have the assurance that someday peace will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea (Habakkuk 2:14). We can have the peace that comes with forgiveness of sins (Romans 5:1). We can also know the peace that feels like tranquillity (John 14:27). One of the greatest experiences of peace is when we forgive others (Ephesians 4:32).

But none of these is the peace mentioned here in Philippians 4:7. This peace can’t be described. It “surpasses all understanding.” This is a peace that sweeps over our souls while we are in the troubles and trials of life. This peace gives us confidence, irrespective of the circumstances.

We have confidence that things are going to work out for our own good and His glory.

This same peace enables us to face life full on, stand on the wide deck of life and know it makes no difference how hard the wind blows or how high the waves roll. This peace “will guard [our] hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

This peace “guards” our hearts and minds.

This peace of God is like a guard on duty around our hearts and minds, protecting and keeping us in life’s most worrisome trials.

Getting from Anxiety to Peace

Noticed what’s happened? We start with anxiety and worry. We come out in peace. Between the two is prayer. Have things changed? No, the problem is still there. The storm still rages, the waves still roll high, the thunder still crashes.

Nothing has changed outside, but the one who is praying has changed. Something has happened to our soul and our mind, moving us from a place of worry to a place where God’s peace now controls our heart and life.

Could it be that the primary purpose of prayer is not to change things but to change us?

We think prayer is a tap that we can turn on to get out of it anything we want. Or it’s a magical, mystical voodoo to make our problems disappear. That’s not prayer!

Prayer is when we go to our heavenly Father, tell Him everything, and then let Him take over. Once we take our hands off, He begins to move—not necessarily on the things outside, but inside our private hearts, minds and lives.

Sometimes He fixes things and makes them better, but sometimes He doesn’t.

The thing He’s concerned about is changing our hearts.

This is the treasure of real prayer that we’re invited into today! Real prayer changes our hearts. It brings our thinking, our will, our plan, and our purposes into alignment with the will of God!

Most of us stand on the fringe of prayer. We never really enter in. We never come as a child with absolute simplicity and absolute faith to a Father, knowing He will hear and answer us in the best way possible.

Can we say to Him, “Lord, I believe; please help my unbelief. Help me to enjoy that wonderful intimacy with You in prayer. Help me to enter into the glorious privilege of talking to You, an almighty, unlimited Father who knows what is best for me.”

When we pray like that I’m convinced that He, not only hears us, but He will rush to help us, to guard us with perfect peace that no one understands. Why not talk to Him right now?