Worry

I think I mentioned yesterday that I was worried for my future when I considered my thyroid disease. Well, I went home and had my quiet time and was met with this:

"Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, 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 your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me--practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you." --Phil :4-9

Wow. Didn't I also say yesterday that I wished I could get my truth administered intraveinously? Here's my antiodote injection. God really spoke to me through this passage.

First is a small evidence of a biblical theme: "rejoice in the Lord always." Elsewhere scripture says to rejoice in trials and count sufferings joy. When we face affliction in life, even then we should be rejoicing - but in what? In the Lord. Then Paul implores us to let our "reasonableness be known to everyone". This 'reasonableness' is forebearance, or patiently bearing up under a given circumstance. We're to endure.

Now here was gold: "be anxious about nothing." The bible doesn't throw in these all exclusive statements by accident. When it says to be anxious about nothing, it means nothing. But scripture rarely tells us not to do something without giving us something we should do instead. Instead of being axious, we're to pray and make our requests known to God against the backdrop of thanksgiving. We're not to approach God with an angry, bitter heart, demanding change, but to humbly come to him and thank him for his goodness, even in the midst of trial, and though we make our preference known to him, be ready to accept his soveriegn will.

Now, what's the incentive for this? "And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." We're not to worry, but we're to pray and depend on God, and when we do so, we'll recieve God's peace. God's peace! Peace is the antithesis of worry. God has given us an escape hatch from worry - trust in him. By praying we're expressing our dependence on him, and to do that honestly we have to develop a genuine trust in his character. We have to come to a place where we believe he loves us and will take care of us. When we have this, we will have God's peace. It does indeed surpass all understanding.

But that's not all. The passage goes on to arm us further in our fight against worry. We're to focus our thoughts on anything that is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, and worthy of praise - instaed of letting the object of our worry consume our minds. If we do this and practice godliness, "The God of peace will be with us". It's worth it to focus my thoughts away from the object of my worry and onto all things good and godly, because the God of peace will be with us. In my mind, that's good company.