Faith – Page 3 – Karen Gamble Writes

Philippians 4:6-7

One verse I often pray is Philippians 4:6-7 (read more about praying Scripture here).

⁶Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (NIV)

The verses specifically tell us we are not to be anxious about anything.

At it’s core, being anxious means we are worried about a situation and how to handle it. We are concerned it won’t turn out like it should or that there is no hope.

But look at the rest of that sentence:

“…by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”

In other words, when we are worried or upset about something we are to go to God and present our requests to Him. We do this by praying to Him.

We are to pray and ask God for what we need and for help with whatever the situation is.

We are to thank Him for His help and for considering our requests, trusting that He will move on the issue.

When we do this with an honest and humble heart, God responds by giving us His peace which guards our hearts and minds in Christ.

This is not just any peace. It’s a peace so wonderful it can’t even be understood.

It’s this peace we get when we trust God with our burdens that eliminates our anxiety.

It guards our hearts because we’ve chosen to trust God.

Some might say, “but He’s God. He already knows everything. Why doesn’t He just handle it?”

There are several reasons for that. Here are two:

1-He wants us to come to Him and ask because this improves our relationship with Him. By seeing Him respond to our requests, we see firsthand He does answer our prayers, which causes us to trust Him even more. This strengthens our faith and causes us to grow closer to Him. We are reminded that He is always there and that we can go to Him at any time.

2-He wants to remind us of Who He is. When we go to Him in prayer we are reminded that He is the One, True, Living God. He is the God who holds the world in His hands. By going to Him we are reminded of the proper order of things and that we were created for Him, not the other way around. This puts us back into proper alignment concerning authority and helps us to remember it is not about us, it is about Him.

It is this remembering who He is and putting Him in His proper place in our lives that allows us to live free of thinking we have to handle things ourselves, which is what causes the anxiety in the first place.

The next time you feel anxious, stop, pray, ask God to move on it, then thank Him for working in your life and your situation.

Then, trust and watch for Him to help you.

No, the situation might not always turn out the way you would like it to, but you can have the peace of knowing that God is working on it and that He will help you with it in a way only He can, and that whatever happens, He has His hand on it.

What situation will you prayerfully ask Him about today?

For further reading

“Come boldly unto the throne of God…” Hebrews 4:16 NIV
“We are His workmanship, created…” Ephesians 2:10 NIV

My post on How to Give Thanks
My followup post to this one: Philippians 4:6-7, Part 2

Category: Faith, New Testament, Scripture Study | LEAVE A COMMENT

Thanking God In the Bad Times

As Christians, we are called to be thankful to God.

It’s not that hard to thank Him for the good things that happen to us, but what about when bad things happen?

Do we thank Him then? Should we?

Look at 1 Thessalonians 5:18 –

“give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (NIV)

It says we are to give thanks in ALL circumstances.

Not just in the good ones. In the bad ones, too.

That can be hard!

How do we thank God in a situation where a loved one is ill?

Or, a relative is seriously injured in an accident? What if they die?

What if a partner leaves without warning?

Do we thank God in these situations?

The answer is yes, we do. In all of them.

No matter the circumstance or situation, there is always something to thank God for. Otherwise, He wouldn’t have told us to.

We can thank Him that they only broke one arm, not both. We can thank Him the illness isn’t worse. We can thank Him for the friends who step up to support and encourage us.

Even if the worst case scenario happens, there are still things we can thank God for.

We can thank Him for the privilege of having known that person and having them in our lives.

We can thank Him for how He blessed our time together.

We can thank God for being there for us; for His presence in our lives as He comforts and strengthens us to walk through this season of heartache.

We can thank God for knowing what is the best outcome for the situation, even when we don’t understand or agree with that outcome.

We can thank God for working in our lives, even when we can’t or won’t see it.

It may seem impossible at first, but if we will focus on God’s goodness and trust that as Creator of the Universe and Author and Finisher of our faith God knows best as He is working all things together, we will begin to see where He is working in the situation.

Then, we can thank Him for those specific things. This will open our eyes to even more things He is doing. More things to thank Him for.

The point is we are supposed to turn our hearts and eyes to God and to begin to thank Him for the good things in our lives despite this hard situation we are dealing with as we maintain our focus on Him and not on the things happening to and/or around us.

Will it be easy? Not necessarily. But as we begin to thank Him for His goodness and who He is, our heart will begin to soften and we will begin to feel His presence. This will give us peace and strength that will sustain us through the hard season.

Will it be painful? Often. But, out of that pain will come healing, growth, and learning.

It will be a chance to grow closer to Christ as we see God for who He truly is and begin to better understand that He really is both working in our lives and interested in comforting and healing us.

It is this seeing His presence and work in our lives and knowing He cares about each one of us that will make it so much easier to give thanks for all that He is doing for us, both in good seasons and bad.

What about you? Are you giving thanks to God in the season you’re in?

Isaiah 41:10

Someone in my life occasionally makes my life difficult for no apparent reason.

I’m not sure why but nothing I do ever pleases them.

To make matters worse, for a lot of reasons it is not someone I can just walk away from.

The last few days have been some of those days when they made things tough.

Yesterday was especially stressful.

I spent an entire day upset, almost to the point of tears.

I kept asking God, “Why is this happening?”, and, “Why won’t You do something?”.

Category: Faith, Prayer | LEAVE A COMMENT

Feeling Anchored

Recently I went through a struggle concerning feeling anchored.

My brother died unexpectedly and I had to go 600+ miles away to attend his service and take care of the family stuff that went with it.

I’d strongly felt God’s presence during the trip, but once I got home and reality set in I started to feel like I was floating. I felt aimless. Like I wasn’t anchored to anything. Just in a bit of limbo.

That is not a very good feeling.

I prayed and prayed and asked the Lord to help me feel more/better connected to Him (God). Then I got in my Bible and started looking at Scripture.

He led me to Hebrews 6.

In it the author is talking about the absolute certainty of God’s promises to us.

Verse 19 said it best-

We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, (NIV)

Did you catch that?

Our hope in God’s promises is an anchor.

It’s our belief that God is who He says He is and that He’ll do what He says He will do that gives us hope and faith. It’s what binds us to Him.

When we hold on to this hope in Him we can live our lives according to His promises, knowing they are waiting for us both here and in the next life.

This is what will keep us anchored to Him. Unmovable. Unshakable. Secure.

Reminding myself that I do trust God, I have seen Him prove Himself trustworthy, and that He will do what He says He will do, made me feel better. It gave me peace and a sense of calm.

It helped me “right” myself as I balanced back out and felt anchored again.

I can tell you first hand, this was exactly what I needed.

I needed to be reminded that God is there for me no matter the circumstance, no matter the situation.

He is Who He said He is, and He will do exactly what He said he would do.

I am so thankful that God’s promises are true and I can trust Him no matter what!

For further reading: Hebrews 11

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