Worry - Finding Peace in Difficult Times - Part 4

Do you ever want your problems to just disappear? I mean, you just give them over to God and they just go away?

For many, this is the way they think prayer works. You just pray to God and He miraculously takes your problems away.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way.

Instead, God wants us to pray and tell Him about our hard situations, not so that He can solve our problems, but so that He can guard our hearts and our minds through His peace.

A peace that is beyond comprehension and only comes from Him.

Many people try to find peace in other ways. Ways the world has to offer. But instead of bringing lasting peace, they ultimately produce more problems for us.

With God’s peace, even in the middle of life’s most difficult and even tragic situations we experience a quietness and calmness.

It sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? But that is how God works. Let’s read how it works...

Philippians 4:6–7 NKJV

6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

I know this sounds like a broken record, but If we’re to conquer worry and experience a secure mind, we must meet the conditions God has laid down.

We saw these when we went through the book of Philippians: Right praying (6-7), right thinking (8), and right living (9).

This morning we’ll look at prayer.

Instead of using just one word for prayer, Paul uses three. Prayer, supplication, and thanksgiving. Right praying involves all three.

They involve the idea of adoration, devotion, and worship. Whenever we find ourselves worrying, our first action should be to get alone with God and worship Him.

We need to realize He’s big enough to solve our problems. All too often we rush into His presence and hurriedly tell Him about our needs and wants.

Instead, we ought to approach His throne calmly and in the deepest reverence. The first step in “right praying” is adoration.

The second word is supplication.

This is an earnest sharing of our needs and problems. There is no place for halfhearted, insincere prayer!

While we know we are not heard for our “much speaking” (Matt. 6:7–8), still we realize that our Father wants us to be earnest in our asking (Matt. 7:1–11).

This is the way Jesus prayed in the Garden (Heb. 5:7), and while His closest disciples were sleeping, Jesus was sweating great drops of blood!

Supplication is not a matter of fleshly energy but of spiritual intensity (Rom. 15:30; Col. 4:12).

After adoration and supplication comes appreciation, giving thanks to God (see Eph. 5:20; Col. 3:15–17).

I’m sure our Heavenly Father enjoys hearing His children say, “Thank You!”

When Jesus healed ten lepers, only one of the ten returned to give thanks (Luke 17:11–19), and we wonder if the percentage is any higher today. We are eager to ask but slow to appreciate.

Paul counsels us to take “everything to God in prayer.” “Don’t worry about anything, but pray about everything!” is his admonition.

We are prone to pray about the “big things” in life and forget to pray about the so-called “little things”—until they grow and become big things! Talking to God about everything that concerns us and Him is the first step toward victory over worry.

The result is that the “peace of God” guards the heart and the mind.

You will remember that Paul was chained to a Roman soldier, guarded day and night.

In the same way, “the peace of God” stands guard over the two areas that create worry—the heart (wrong feeling) and the mind (wrong thinking).

When we give our hearts to Christ in salvation, we experience “peace with God” (Rom. 5:1); but the “peace of God” takes us a step farther into His blessings.

This does not mean the absence of trials on the outside, but it does mean a quiet confidence within, regardless of circumstances, people, or things.

God’s peace acts as a protective hedge for our heart and mind. It keeps our mind from being engulfed and overwhelmed with thoughts that lead to nothing but destruction, un-productivity and hurt.

It stops our heart from becoming so heavy that we give up. God rarely just makes our problems disappear but He will provide us with a peace that allows us to think clearly, take the next step and to plan for tomorrow.

His peace is a reminder that He is in control and that we don’t need to be paralyzed with worry or bitter with grief and anger.

Prayer is not about asking Him to solve the problem as much as it is to ask Him for the peace that passes all understanding, strength to make it through the day, and the wisdom to know which step to take.

We need to seek God with our whole heart when worry begins to invade our minds.

He will give you His peace, a way to stand up when everything around you is falling. Begin praying today for God to guard your mind and heart allowing you to experience true life through His peace.

Let’s close with this verse from 2 Thessalonians...

2 Thessalonians 3:16 NKJV

16 Now may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace always in every way. The Lord be with you all.

Prayer.