Philippians 4:6-7 NKJV “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
This scripture suggests that there is a tendency for anxiety in life. Scripture is giving us instructions not to be anxious, and for that instruction to come to us, it suggest that there is a possibility for a man to be anxious in life. Anxiety may not be totally strange to humanity. It takes the supernatural peace of God in man’s life for you not to be anxious in our day and time. It means ahead of this season of life, scripture has gone ahead and given us an instruction that is very clear that we should not be anxious.
So being anxious doesn’t mean we are not normal, in fact it is expected and normal to be anxious and it is not expected and normal not to be anxious in the kingdom. The situation of the country or life issues will bring people to a place of anxiety. But then the word of God has gone ahead of us and it says “Don’t be anxious for anything”.
The only antidote that can solve the problem of anxiety is the PEACE OF GOD. So, you are not permitted to be pulled in different directions and to be worried about a thing, what we need to do is to be saturated in prayers. We can not be praying and be worried and we can not also be worrying and be praying. Worrying and praying should not meet. There should not be a place for a man to be worried and still be praying vice versa.
The scripture begins to show us that peace of God is the antidote but before the pathway to the peace of God is to be saturated in prayers throughout each day. That means there is nothing we cannot pray about. God is interested in the tiniest aspect of your life.
If you will not be anxious, it means you have experienced the peace of God and for you to experience the peace of God, then you must have presented a matter to God in prayer.
If you don’t want to be anxious then you will pray, and if you must pray then you will lay hold on the peace of God. The proof that you are praying is that the more you pray, the more worry should disappear. Also, before you lay hold on answers most times, you must have lay hold on the peace of God. It is either you are pulled in different directions and you are worried about everything or you actually allow God to pull you in.
Do not allow your anxiety and needs to pull you in different directions but into the everlasting arm of God. He is the one that will calm your fears and anxiety. Worrying cannot solve anything, instead it makes things worse, it is prayer that changes things. Worry complicates issues more.
When you allow anxiety and worry into your life, it causes you to make more mistakes, you commit blunders and go ahead of God. When you allow the peace of God to overwhelm your heart and pull you into his bosom you will see with the eyes of God, the solutions that God has prepared for you. (Matthew 6:27) The above scripture reveals that “which one of you by worrying could add anything to your life?”
Prayer adds, worry subtracts. It’s a choice. It is not the degree or the intensity of the situation that should determine how you respond to the situation, it’s a decision you should deliberately make. This decision can make a lot of difference. It’s a decision to pull back. No issue is too small or too big to pray about.
Until you come to the place of the peace of God guiding your heart and mind in Christ Jesus, you will not press into the atmosphere of possibilities. The reason why you need to press into the peace of God is because, sometimes before the answer comes, once you step into that place you will have a clear picture of what God is doing and a better understanding of the season where you are.
It is more painful when you are not sure of what God is doing per season and you now operate without direction. It makes it seem as if God does not answer prayers. It’s an issue of season, it’s a phase of life. The purpose of prayer is to know the mind of God about a thing and not necessarily to get a thing.
God does not just want to throw things at you most times. He wants to use the situation to grow and mature you. Nobody grows in comfort. God is more concerned about the process than the product. The primary thing God releases in the midst of challenges is his peace.
How would you say no to a job after waiting so long to get it? Such will be influenced by our peace. We must come to a place where the peace of God rules our hearts. In the midst of our waiting and lack we must have peace so as to be assured that we are in the right place.
The peace of God in our heart becomes the inner witness that God is on our side. It remains our thermometer. He is able to protect us and ensure that we are not stagnated.
We are in God’s program. He cannot joke with our lives. Once we come to that place of assurance in God. How we experience this is to come to the place of prayer and pray to a point where the peace of God breaks forth from our heart. We pray until there is an assurance in our heart. In this, we can burst into prophecy, and rejoice.
When we do this we are sure that God will not come late. He would come early. These are legitimate needs and the scriptures are not playing down on it.
What to eat may not only be in the scope of the scripture but also not knowing what to eat in the midst of plenty of food supply at home. This can be some weight. One of the weights we may develop concerning legitimate desire is seeing our wardrobes empty.
Matthew 6:25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not life more than meat, and the body more than raiment?
God is concerned about minute details. He said we should not be bothered. He is mindful of us. It looks as if it is a little detail. We may think that the Lord only deals with what is seen on the outside and not what is hidden.
(The word Father connotes source and origin).
If the Father can take care of the birds, how much more us? Jesus also talked about how the flowers of the field are arrayed. He compared Solomon’s glory and that of flowers. God is mindful of every detail. The issue is not salary. The lowest form of currency to spend is dollars, pounds and so on. But a higher currency is glory, favour and wisdom. It depends on the currency we have been dealing with. When we are still talking about the lowest form of currency is that we are not experiencing the peace we need to have.
The Bible talked about the three means of defense- money, wisdom and the glory of God. The glory of God is the highest form of defence. The dimension will cover our nakedness. God is mindful of our wardrobe than we think we are. You are the one thinking you have a wardrobe malfunction here and there that needs to be sorted. God is mindful of every detail. The issue is not the little salary or the empty store room. The issue is oh ye of little faith. Matthew 6:25-33.
The lowest currency to spend is in naira, pounds and Dollars. One of the greatest you can walk with or operate with is the glory of God. The favour of God. You have hard currency to spend but it is not sufficient. You have noit come to the dimension where you can experience God enough. The Bible talks about glory, wisdom and money as a defence. The highest dimension of defense is the glory of God. He promised to supply our needs according to his riches in glory. There is a glory dimension where many have not come into where covers and preserve.
The other forms of defense are smaller compare to the glory dimension of his defense. With all the glory of Solomon, none of these things can come near what God can do.
Our heavenly father knows we have need of these things. It a matter of being pulled into the presence of God that allowing your situation pull you to different directions.
When you pray and are in his presence, do look forward to his peace. With his peace you have a better assurance of what he is doing. If you have the peace of God, you’d name your season rightly and correctly.
One of the havoc the devil can do to a man is for him to label his season wrongly and not have clarity of why His is doing in his life. We must understand the phase and season of our life. When to move and when not to.
Can we be pulled into the place of prayer until the peace of God breaks forth in our heart that we can say, God is on our side.
Some of the things Paul made as declaration were not things he said with the human senses. They came out of their hearts as an assurance from God.
With a knowing that God is on our side. Most times do not be in a hurry to make declarations. Pray and pray through first and allow the peace of God break forth in your spirit man before you start making some definite declaration of what you are trusting him for.
Don’t use motivation. Don’t do positive confession.., it wears out quickly because it is not coming from the place where your fear has been conquered that God has done it. It is only when you speak from that realm that it makes sense. That’s light coming from you spirit, the word of prophecy in action.
It takes abnormal peace not to be anxious.