Church bulletin:<\/p>\n
Phil 4:6-7, \u201cBe anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; (7)\u00a0and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.\u201d <\/em>It is sometimes argued that because Paul is issuing an imperative \u201cbe anxious for nothing\u201d, to feel anxious is sinful \u2013 breaking a command. The root of the word translated as \u201canxious\u201d means to be distracted. We are concerned about something and it unsettles us. It robs us of peace and it may be difficult to remove from our minds. Many things can trigger anxiety such as being in the presence of a particular person, going to a particular place, having to address issues we would rather not, being reminded of past events. We have all experienced anxiety to one degree or another for one reason or another.<\/p>\n It\u2019s important to understand that anxiety is a natural reaction to difficult situations \u2013 actual, anticipated or remembered. As Christ entered into His passion, we read the following: Matt 26:37-38, \u201cAnd He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. (38)\u00a0Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.\u201d<\/em> Luke 22:42-44, \u201cFather, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not My will, but Yours, be done.” (43)\u00a0Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him. (44)\u00a0And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.\u201d <\/em>The word anxiety isn\u2019t used of the Lord Jesus, but clearly other strong terms associated with anxiety are \u2013 deeply distressed, exceedingly sorrowful, being in agony, sweating drops like blood.<\/p>\n We will not pass through anything of the magnitude that He passed through, nevertheless, in His humanity He experienced the emotions that we do. If it is sinful to become anxious, deeply troubled, perplexed, then Christ committed sin \u2013 which, of course, is impossible. The thrust of Paul\u2019s directive is this, when you are faced with something which has the potential to make you anxious or has caused you to be anxious, don\u2019t let it swallow you up, don\u2019t allow it free reign to get the better of you. Respond to all of your concerns, big or small, by speaking to God.<\/p>\n Prayer<\/strong> \u2013 reflect upon His love, power and majesty, in response worship Him and commit yourself to Him.<\/p>\n Supplication<\/strong> \u2013 request help with the issues you face, ask for wisdom, strength and grace.<\/p>\n Thanksgiving<\/strong> \u2013 thank God for your many blessings beginning with salvation.<\/p>\n Paul is not suggesting a quick-fix solution \u2013 say a prayer and bingo, problem solved. He is providing a general principle \u2013 God works through persistent prayer. When Jesus stood in the shadow of the cross and felt overwhelmed, what did He do? He prayed. If He needed to pray, we need to pray. If His Father (our Father) ministered to Him, He will minister to us. The peace which surpasses understanding is a supernatural peace. It is God\u2019s own peace imparted to us by the Spirit of Christ through prayer and truth. John 14:27, \u201c<\/em>Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.<\/em>\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n In a fallen world we will never be anxiety free, but anxiety shouldn\u2019t enslave us. Through prayer we entrust ourselves to the omnipotent, wise and loving God who calms our restless hearts with His own peace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Church bulletin: Phil 4:6-7, \u201cBe anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; (7)\u00a0and the peace of God, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8496,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sdreformedbaptist.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sdreformedbaptist.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sdreformedbaptist.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sdreformedbaptist.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sdreformedbaptist.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8032"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/sdreformedbaptist.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8032\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8508,"href":"https:\/\/sdreformedbaptist.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8032\/revisions\/8508"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sdreformedbaptist.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sdreformedbaptist.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sdreformedbaptist.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sdreformedbaptist.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}