"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God, and the peace of God which passes all understanding will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:6-7
I have the nothing but's. I worry about nothing but ... my family, my finances, things at work, my friends, things at church, national crises, and the future. You know, just the big things. I mean, that's okay, right? Everyone does it.
A couple of weeks ago, driving to work, I wasn't praying or petitioning or giving thanks, I was anxiously telling the Lord about all my worries when Philippians 4:6 came to mind. Several years ago I memorized that verse from The Message just because it was distilled into two simple phrases, "Worry about nothing; pray about everything." Nothing? NOTHING? Are you kidding me? Nothing but the big things right? Nothing but the things with life-altering potential, of course, right, Lord? Nothing. How? How? HOW????
Pray about everything ... with THANKSGIVING. Oh.
Last night I read this in Francis Chan's book, Crazy Love:
Both worry and stress reek of arrogance. They declare our tendency to forget that we've been forgiven, that our lives here are brief, that we are headed to a place where we won't be lonely, afraid, or hurt ever again, and that in the context of God's strength, our problems are small, indeed.
If you can't say "amen," you better say, "ouch" with me. :-\
No comments:
Post a Comment