Don't Fret

From The Eagles Wing - written by me several years ago. BTW...this is one that I should probably reread everyday as a reminder.

Philippians 4:6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, 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. 8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me--put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you. (NIV)

You don’t have to look very hard today to find people who are worried and stressed, and just about at the end of their rope. (Sometimes we only have to look in the mirror!) God’s word is a clear guideline for having the peace in our lives that we all desire.

I struggle with this myself. I will hear teaching on trusting God, and someone will say, “Well, how do you know if you really trust and have faith in God until there is a problem in your life that is so big that if He does not solve it, it won’t get solved?” And because it really is my heart’s desire to see God working in a mighty way in my life, I will think that the next time a crisis arises it will be my opportunity to really believe God to come through for me. The problem is that when I am right in the middle of a storm, for some reason I tend to forget about all of that and start trying to figure out how I'm going to fix the problem. Usually I have worked myself into a good stressed-out mess before I get really desperate and call out to God. He is always so faithful, and even though He doesn’t always answer in the way or time that I would have chosen, I know that His way is always best.

But how much better for all of us if we can learn to follow the guidelines in Philippians 4:6-9:
-Don’t worry or fret about anything, no matter what your circumstances look like.
-Come to Him with a thankful heart--for who He is, for what He has already done for you, and for what He is going to do for you.
-Be specific in your prayer requests.
-Continue to make your wants known to Him.
-Exercise your will to choose to think about good and true and pure things.
-Practice what you have learned and received from God, and model your way of living after it.

The promise of God is that His peace, the peace that nobody can even understand, will then guard our hearts and our minds in Jesus. There are many ways that He imparts His peace to us. I have felt a supernatural peace that just enveloped me like a heavenly hug. I have also experienced peace through a word from a friend, an anointed song that touched my heart, and memories of how God has brought me through hard times in the past. I believe that these are some of the ways that the Holy Spirit ministers peace to us.

How it must grieve Him to see us suffer with the cares of this world when He has made a way for us to experience His peace and rest. And of course the enemy of our souls just loves to get us stirred up and get our focus off God. Satan will use any trick he can to divert us from pressing on toward a closer relationship with our Father. The battle is in our minds, and the choice is ours.

Let's be challenged this week to make a fresh start and to look at the problems that are facing us through spiritual eyes, knowing that our God is loving and faithful and is well able to meet our needs.