OnFireFit

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Added 2023-11-17 12:00:02 +0000 UTC

Good morning!

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7

How many times have I breezed right on past the “with thanksgiving” part of this?!

We are told to be thankful as part of our pathway to peace. I am pretty good at presenting my prayers and petitions to God but the anxious part? That usually remains for quite a while. So, what is the missing part that would lead to the transcending peace of God?

Over and over throughout the Bible, praise and thanks are the way.

We don’t guard our hearts and minds very well, it seems. We get fixated on our problems and catastrophize outcomes that haven’t happened yet. We try to control, manipulate and manage situations that we have only partial control of, at best.

The reason we don’t have to be anxious is because when we know we are children of the Almighty and He is all-powerful, we know that He is working in everything for our good. We can let Him know how we are feeling about something but we can express it with gratitude for how He is going to handle it for us.

God knows who He is. We need to remind ourselves who He is. We become our own little gods thinking we can manage or not manage things and then we are either happy or anxious depending on how we feel we are doing. Instead, let us learn to tell God what we feel, thank Him for being at work and focus on praising Him for who He is. Then, peace will come upon us as we let go of our own “gods” and put Him back on the throne of our hearts!