THE SCENARIO HremoS is cool, cool under fire. We caught up with HremoS just the other day to find out why.
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In the outworking of this scenario please consider the following that HremoS learned from the Word of God, and not just learned, but endeavors to put into practice:
SENSITIVITY POINTS UNDER CONSIDERATION
2. Thanksgiving.
3. Talk to Jehovah God, talk it out with Him.
5. Jesus Christ, head and heart Shield.
1. What is anxiety? An online encyclopedia defines it so:
“Anxiety is an emotion characterized by an unpleasant state of inner turmoil, often accompanied by nervous behaviour such as pacing back and forth, somatic complaints, and rumination. It is the subjectively unpleasant feelings of dread over anticipated events, such as the feeling of imminent death. Anxiety is a feeling of uneasiness and worry, usually generalized and unfocused as an overreaction to a situation that is only subjectively seen as menacing. It is often accompanied by muscular tension, restlessness, and problems in concentration. Anxiety can be appropriate, but when experienced regularly the individual may suffer from an anxiety disorder. Anxiety is not the same as fear, which is a response to a real or perceived immediate threat; anxiety involves the expectation of future threat. People facing anxiety may withdraw from situations which have provoked anxiety in the past. “
Okay, given that backdrop, Jehovah God says: “…Be anxious for nothing…”, and He helps us attain to that blessed charge. How? His very first guidance in that regard points us to Him—He is “how.” You say, that’s too nebulous. More concretely then, He is “how” through prayer and supplication. In this context prayer is supplication (entreaty) and supplication is prayer. Any form of purposed communication with Jehovah God is prayer[1]. Supplication (entreaty, of God) is a form of prayer. It is an extra anxiety-burden to an anxious soul to think that entreaty of God concerning the perceived trouble is somehow wrong. Just the opposite, God welcomes entreaty, and encourages it, as our guiding verses in Philippians 4:6-7 make clear. But one must come before Him prepared to embrace His terms of engagement, the main one being prayer in the Name of Jesus Christ (John 14:13-14), an avenue available only to Christians (“A Letter of Invitation”). Generally, we do not know the particulars of those terms, but by-and-by they become quite apparent in the providential circumstances that befall us.
As said in the encyclopedia article, anxiety can be appropriate; this we hold is because God gave it to us at least to some degree as a survival mechanism or perhaps as a motivator, but it oftentimes gets out of control and becomes a disorder, like so many other of His blessings which humankind cannot handle aright apart from His guidance, guidance which is typically not sought or is flat rejected. So, prayer and supplication right out of the gate so to speak ought to be directed toward getting His guidance to find and attain the proper level of anxiety in a matter (guidance per se is a fundamental burden and role of Scripture and of the Spirit of God); that is a practical sort of upfront supplication prayer step. It is a good first step; for example: ‘…My Lord, please help me find the right anxiety level to do this thing aright; please help me to judge this thing aright, abundantly give me your mettle great savior God to get beyond this, and be ever glorified all along the way…’. Next would follow more of the same with whatever specific appeals are appropriate because prayer is medicinal and therapeutic, and not least because Jehovah God answers prayer, particularly that of the guidance variety. Cool HremoS would say “Prayer and supplication is like putting the anxiety in Jehovah’s shirt pocket right there next to His big, gracious heart, and leaving it there.”
2. Prayer and supplication is good and right per point 1, but God wants it with thanksgiving, that is why we gave it its own point of discussion. How is this thanksgiving supposed to be put into shoe leather? It is more than lip service, that’s for sure. One can say thank you for thus and so, for settling me down, for getting me beyond the moment, for giving me guidance, and whatnot, and that is good, but there is more to it than that. Let’s look at the passage a little more closely with some emphasis: “…Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God…”. The watchwords would seem to be “nothing,” and “everything.” Ironically, they are complementary in this context; they are not explicitly a conditional construction, only implicitly—the ”nothing” has its best chance when the “everything” is in force. (A little slippage of the latter likely translates to a little slippage of the former; a little less “everything,” a little less of that blessed “nothing.”) It follows that thanksgiving is a way of walking before the Benefactor Jehovah. It is a disposition of the heart that thankful words dancing and skipping past grateful lips cannot help but betray before the Benefactor. Moreover, this discussion complements point 1—clearly, all entreaty is welcome (everything).
3. God knows our troubles before we bring them to Him, it is not He who needs to hear them from us, it is He who wants to hear them from us; it is we who need to relate them to Him, not for His benefit, but for ours: Talking to God in the Name of the Savior Jesus is cathartic. This is hard for an unbeliever to understand. The difficulty for the unbeliever lies in that word “unbelief.” Belief in the Savior Jesus and His promises is precisely what makes talking to God in Jesus’ Name cathartic unbelieving friend (“A Letter of Invitation”).
A good talk with a trusted friend over this or that issue is like rest to a weary and troubled soul. Jehovah God wants to be that Friend to us:
Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. Matthew 11:28-30
Let us learn how to Rest, let us attain to this guidance, let us learn how to truly rest our frail human nature; let us toward that end be guided by the Rest Giver, and be anxious no more. His yoke, His burden, these are our consummate Rest, counterintuitive though it may seem. His yoke and His burden are His Word, a Word spoken, a Word written down, a Word for guidance, a Word eternal that visited troubled humankind to make lucid and doable that which was spoken and written down, even the Word of eternal Rest.
4. The peace of God surpasses all comprehension. It saturates one; it completely fills the uttermost recesses of one’s soul. Like unto peaceful depths is this peace of God, peaceful depths exceeding deep, unfazed by the turbulence raging at the surface; peaceful depths, so quiet and cool, like unto swimming therein, oblivious to the turbulence raging at the surface. Enveloped thereby, by those peaceful depths so quiet and cool, enveloped by God, wholly oblivious to all else.
Whence this blessed peace? It is the peace of God that comes through an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ, the Prince of Pease (Isaiah 9:6); there is no other way to attain to it (John 14:27, Acts 4:12, “A Letter of Invitation,” “Peaceful Depths”).
Be anxious for nothing, but in all things, through 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 your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7
5. The peace of God guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Say again: The peace of God, it is, that guards our hearts and minds, in Christ Jesus. Hearts and minds are easily troubled. Broken hearts and anxious minds beset a fallen humankind. Does it not follow that the Savior of fallen humankind, that precisely He, would restore broken hearts and anxious minds to their intended vitality? That vitality feeds on the peace of God, in the place of which stands our Savior Jesus, even He, the Prince of very Peace. To embrace Him is to embrace the peace of God and the spiritual and physical vitality that His peace brings (“A Letter of Invitation” dearest reader).
6. An eternal perspective is a view to God and eternity. No other perspective makes sense in the long haul for humankind. Sure, we need our short-term perspectives down here in the land of the living to get things done, but for the long haul, an eternal perspective, a view to God and the assurance of eternity with Him, is the only perspective that makes sense. The indefatigable grave proves us right here. In the context of this scenario, an eternal perspective surely exposes those acutely anxious times in our lives as but temporary nuisances; nay, it surely frames them as needless nuisances, an exceeding waste of our good time and energy. A working, personal relationship with God in and through Jesus Christ is an eternal perspective put into practice; and that perspective in keeping with that relationship equilibrates and pacifies anxious minds better than anything else under the sun (panaceas, parties, pep talks, pills, etc.), per force of the right focus. And of course, it is Jehovah God’s decided intention to engage and nurture such relationships with Himself, clearly, through Jesus Christ, expressly for our healing (spiritual, physical). It is fair to say that it is not entirely for His sake that He does this. Praised be His great Name for bearing with us slow to engage Him, and worse, and for bearing so much for us to heal us. He is the greatest, and how exceedingly good it is we have you dearest Lord.
7. Dear Christian friend, you so greatly loved by God, and fussed over by Him, like a mother hen fussing over her little ones, thus He pleasantly fusses over you and cares for you and wants the best for you; be not beset by anxiety, be inundated by the peace of God in our Savior Jesus and be well. All the days of your life be at peace and be well, dearest Christian friend. This is our prayer for you blessed and beloved Christian friend. Amen.
Praised be your Name great God of peace Jehovah. Amen.