Prayer

Hey Element Church! God really helped me with a verse I read in Philippians a few days ago and I thought I'd share it with you today.

Philippians 4:6-7 says this "6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus."

A couple things from these two verses that I felt God really helped me in.

#1 Don't worry about anything. Why? Because you can pray! I don't know why that jumped out at me so much. I think so often we forget who we are praying to. The reason Paul says not to worry is because we can talk to God about our worries. You have a need? Pray. You have a fear? Pray. Have a concern? Pray. A wayward child? Pray. I wonder if we don't stop worrying because we don't trust who we are praying to. I want my trust level to be SO HIGH with God that if a worry creeps in, I can pray and TRUST God has it under control! REGARDLESS of the outcome.

#2 Tell God what you need... We're good at that. We're GREAT at it actually. Most of our prayers revolve around us asking God for something. Asking God to make everything right in our lives. Asking him to weight everything in our advantage. What I think we struggle with sometimes is giving ample time to thank God for what he's done. That in itself can help take worry away. When we thank God for what He's done it helps us get through those worrisome moments because we KNOW what He is capable of. We need to be habitual about asking AND thanking in our prayers.

#3 THEN... Then is a keyword in many verses. THEN you will experience peace. When? When we don't worry but pray, and in our prayers tell God what we need AND thank Him for what He's done. THEN we'll have peace. Why? BECAUSE IT'S NOT UP TO ME TO GET IT DONE! My hope is in the LORD the maker of Heaven and earth. Now that can bring peace. And what will that peace do?

#4 HIS peace will guard your hearts and minds... from what? This is good. WORRY! It's a cyclical. Worry should lead us to prayer which leads us to peace which keeps us from worry!

There you go. Don't know if that helps anyone but wanted to share it!

Following Christ,

Jeff