Moving beyond formal prayers to an authentic, personal conversation with God…about everything!
Philippians 4:6-7 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Have you ever been anxious? There are many things that we encounter in life, and some of these, when we face them, cause us to feel anxious. Maybe a reminder will help? Have you ever felt unprepared for an exam even when you’ve studied for it? Have you ever received a message that sounded urgent, and you weren’t sure what the urgency was? I remember recently looking at my cell phone and I saw that I had a missed call from “the Solicitor General of Canada”. I immediately asked myself why would the government of Canada have a lawyer contact me? When I returned the call, it turned out that it was from a Quebec prison where a Parole Officer wanted to contact me about a common client we shared. Phew! What a relief.
There is a story from the United States about a man who brought some relief to the anxious cotton farmers in the southern states. Cotton was a cash crop grown in Alabama but every year the land yielded less and less, threatening the livelihood of that economy. There was a college professor by the name of George Washington Carver who helped with this crisis. He had been doing research on peanuts and their variety of uses. He suggested that those farmers utilize crop rotation and to include growing peanuts as they were able to reintroduce nitrogen to the soil. This advice saved the cotton industry and relieved the anxiety of the crop farmers in Alabama. When he was asked by Congress about how he was able to get this knowledge, his answer was simple.
“I read it in the bible.”
“You mean the Bible talks about growing peanuts,” came the response.
“The Bible talks about God and He made everything, including the peanuts and so I asked Him, and this is what I discovered.”
The above scripture says that when anxiety threatens, then it is good to take it to God through ‘prayer and petition’. Talk with God about it, and He will provide the answer with an accompanying peace. In another passage in the Bible, Hebrews 11:1, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” This verse tells us something important about faith. We can be encouraged to come to God because He is the one that gives us this faith, this ability to trust in his provision. Anxiety, on the other hand, results from looking at our inability and the hopelessness that follows because we feel helpless in the face of uncertainty. We then think of bad things that could possibly happen because of our inability. We lose hope, and we doubt ourselves, and we don’t even give God a thought.
If we can think of the God of the Bible who helped George Washington Carver solve his problem, we can surely ask him to help us, and what’s more, he gives us peace, no anxiety, and we have courage to face the unknown.
Prayer
Dear God, thank you for the way that you help us. Thank you for telling us that when we feel anxious, we can come to you for help. This attitude of thankfulness prepares us to overcome the uncertainty, and the peace you give us takes away our anxiety.
Amen