Philippians 4:6

Hello Everyone!

I wanted to start out this post with a video from friends of ours

the Burchfield Brothers, Benji and John.

They are wonderfully talented instrumentalists.

My husband went to Olivet Nazarene University with Benji and

has enjoyed renewing their friendship since we all live in the

Nashville, TN area, now.

If you like their music you may go to their website at www.burchfieldbrothers.com

and sign-up for their newsletter where you will get two free music downloads!


Please enjoy!

(Plz remember to turn off my Playlist in the left sidebar!)






Our Scripture for this week is....!




"Don't worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God."

There are other versions of this verse, but this is the one I want to use this week.

In this world, today...this verse should be taped on our foreheads!!

(That would look strange, wouldn't it!!)

It seems as the years go by, there is more worry and more worry with

each passing decade.

But this is the end of the end times and the Bible says that everyone will

wanting peace and safety ~ 1 Thessalonians 5:3

Do we have any "worry warts" present here?

Does the following story ring a bell for you?

"The Most Reverend R.C. Trench, who was at one time the Protestant

Archbishop of Dublin, had a morbid fear of becoming paralyzed.

One evening at a party, the lady he sat next to at dinner heard him muttering

mournfully to himself, 'It's happened at last...total insensibility of the right limb!'

'Your Grace,' said the lady, 'it may comfort you to learn that it is my leg

you are pinching!'"

hehehehehe!!!

But seriously, over 100 diseases have been directly attributed to worry!

An article that I just found is entitled:

"Chronic Worry Tied To Memory Problems"

hmmmmmmmm.....oh boy!!

Worry will not only take away your physical energy,

it will also rob the soul of its stamina as well.

Why?

Worry is the ultimate act of rebellion against the rule of God

in a believer's life.

How?

Worry says that God is dead ~

and if He is alive...

then He is incapable of doing anything about my situation!!

Ouch.

Worry could be called the most popular pastime of the human race.

One elderly lady said, "I always feel bad when I feel good,

for I know that I'll feel bad after awhile!"

Can you relate?

When we worry, we have ceased to trust the Lord.

If worry is eating you alive and is destroying your physical

and spiritual life, the Apostle Paul wants to help you to defeat its power!

In this verse and the next two, the Bible sheds light

on how we are to handle our worry.

Worry comes from an Old English word meaning "to strangle"...

Now, of all of the old-timey derivatives...this one nails it!!

• Worry will choke the life right out of you!

• Worry is the interest paid on trouble before it falls due

• Worry is the interest we pay on tomorrow's trouble

• Worry pulls tomorrow's cloud over today's sunshine

• Worry gives a small thing a big shadow

Why should Christians not worry?

• God knows what you have faced, are facing and will face (Proverbs 15:3)

• God cares about what you face in life (1 Peter 5:8)

• God has promised to take care of you (Hebrews 13:5-6)

Years ago, in the pioneer days of aviation, a pilot was making a flight around the

world. After he had been gone for some two hours from his last landing field,

he heard a noise in his plane, which he recognized as the gnawing of a rat.

He realized that while his plane had been on the ground, a rat had gotten in.

For all he knew the rat could be gnawing though a vital cable or control of the

plane. It was a very serious situation. He was both concerned and worried.

At first, he did not know what to do. It was two hours back to the landing

field from which he had taken off and more than two hours to the next field

ahead. Then, he remembered that the rat is a rodent. It is not made for the

heights; it was made to live on the ground and under the ground. Therefore, the

pilot began to climb. He went up a thousand feet, then another thousand and

another until he was more than twenty thousand feet up. The gnawing ceased.

The rat was dead. He could not survive in the atmosphere of those heights.

More than two hours later the pilot brought the plane safely to the next landing

field and found the dead rat. Worry is like a rat in your heart and in your mind.

If left alone, it will gnaw at you until it destroys your life and until it steals away all

your joy, power and energy. But....But....the rodent of worry cannot live in the

secret place of the Most High!! It cannot breathe in an atmosphere that is steeped

with prayer and influenced by the Word of God!! Worry dies when we climb up to

the Lord through prayer and His Word!! What do you need to carry up to the

Lord in prayer?

"but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God."


Thanksgiving....

When you worry, presumably, you are not is a situation where being thankful

is automatic or spontaneous!

You will have to do this deliberately!

Thanksgiving in times of trials, reflects 3 things:

1. You are remembering God's supply in the past
2. You are submitting to God's supreme power in the present
3. Your are trusting in God's sufficiency for the future

Supply...Supreme...Sufficiency...

You say ~ "Lord, I do NOT understand, but I submit to Your supreme power and

purpose in this situation. I trust You.

Let me go out on a limb here...

At some point in our Christian lives....

we are to give thanks for the trial.



Now...I know what you are thinking...

1. How can I give thanks for my family member dying?
2. How can I give thanks for losing my job?
3. How can I give thanks for losing our financial investments?
4. How can I give thanks for not being able to make our house payment?
   
5. How can I give thanks for my spouse leaving me?
6. How can I give thanks for my teenager's rebellion?
7. How can I give thanks for my boss who is verbally harassing me?
8. How can I give thanks for my spouse who is physically abusing me?
9. How can I give thanks for a sick baby?
   

I know...I know...

Please allow me to say this with gentleness (last post)...

This is a process.

Once you have been through a fiery trial...

the next time (unfortunately there will be another)

you find yourself suddenly thrown into the fiery furnace,

you MAY BE able to:

• lift your head a little higher

• lift your hands a little higher in worship

• lift your voice in praise

Remember one of my last posts where I said that we should be

Worshipers instead of Worriers...?

ugh.

It would be GREAT if you can do this during your first trial!

But being human, we tend to build our faith slowly, sometimes.

We need to see how each time the Lord helped us.

We need to see how each time He brought us through.

You MAY even get to the point of the three Hebrew children in

Daniel 3. You may even want to STAY in the fiery furnace.

(unbelievable)

If you read this passage closely...

verse 25, the King says that they see FOUR men in the fire!!

One of those men had to be the Lord, in my humble opinion.

AND they were unbound!!!

They CHOSE to stay there to be close to the Lord!!!

Praise the Lord!!!

When they CAME OUT....

the only thing destroyed on them were their human bonds.....

hmmmmmmm......

They DID NOT even smell like smoke!!!

Do you know anyone who has been through a fiery trial and they

came out being bitter?

They came out smelling like the aftermath of a campfire....eckkkk....

The 3 Hebrew children came out BETTER not BITTER.

The only letter that changed there was the "I".....

God bless you as you are possibly walking through a trial today.

May you be able at some point in your life to be thankful for a trial,

because you KNOW that God will bring good out of it some way some how.

Amen!!

Debbie G.

References:

"God's Word Concerning Your Worries ~ by Alan Carr
"The Answer... " ~ by Steven J. Cole

These were found at www.preceptaustin.org ~ Philippians 4:6-7

(See link on left sidebar for "Online Commentary")