Mini Post: Anxious Today? Give It The One-Two-Three Punch

              Are you anxious today?  Me too.  So, I went to the place where I knew I could get help. Philippians 4:4-9. When anxiety comes calling we do not have to strap in for the roller coaster ride that so often comes with this emotional interloper.  We can give it the one, two, three!

 ^{vs. 4}  Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.  Who made this day?  The Lord Our Maker made this day. It is His, not ours, so we get up and rejoice!  It is His day to be worshiped in and our day to rejoice in.  He is the Lord our Banner who sits on the throne, and His Banner over us is Love.  So, we choose to remember His unfailing love for us in the hardest, scariest, out-of-control moments of this day; we let His perfect love cast out all fear.  I hold out my hands and I audibly thank the Lord for this day, for this life, for His character that I can fully trust in today.  Maybe I even hum or sing a line, “You are good, good.  You are good to me!”  Punch #1

 ^{vs. 5}  Let your reasonableness be known to everyone.The Lord is at hand;  We will meet with other people today.  Maybe that thought alone causes you anxiety.  But the Lord is at hand.  He is literally with us, before, beside, and behind.  We cannot escape His hand.  We are in His grip.  Hallelujah!  We will have opportunity to speak and tell others what is reasonable today.  The ancients used reason, or logic, to persuade people to follow the path of truth.  We too can speak calmly, factually, and truthfully to others for the purpose of leading them away from their anxiety and into peacefulness.  So, as we speak to ourselves, we turn and speak gently to others.  We infuse our surroundings with  peaceful, gentle truth.  This gentle truthful answering reinforces our belief in the Lord, who is always at hand.  Punch #2

vs. 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.   So we see that we are told to stop giving into anxiety about everything, even what we are having for dinner or what we will wear today.  By practicing trust in these minor decisions, we are forming a peaceful and trusting mindset for the entire day.  When the anxious thoughts keep coming, we pray.  Prayer is active.  We stop the anxious thought process and begin praying.  Pray anything!  Sometimes I will quote the first Scripture that comes to my mind and then say, “Help me Lord!”  So, we begin by supplicating, or humbly and earnestly asking the Lord for help with whatever anxious thoughts are coming at us.  And then we take a step of belief by thanking God that He’s got this.  He wants us to let Him know what we need.  He is Our Father in Heaven, our perfect all knowing Father who is at hand.  Tell him what you need.  Tell Him you need peace and faith to trust Him.  Punch #3

And now the best part - the outcome of the One, Two, Three Punch  vs. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. All who are in Christ are at peace with God.  Are your sins nailed to the cross with Jesus?  Then He has become sin for you!  Therefore, there is no more condemnation, only freedom for you - all of our sin was laid on Christ.  And He has risen, defeating hell and death and sin!  This surpasses all of our understanding and so we need to remind ourselves of where we stand with God, in Christ!  Let this truth be a guard, a shield of faith over your heart, your emotions, and your thoughts today.  You are in Christ.  You have the mind of Christ.  Trust it.  He will renew you day by day.  Have you failed in trusting God?  So have I.  But I know my standing in Christ has not changed.  I know that He is enough.  And I know that because I am still breathing, the fight is not over.  The enemy has not won and Christ is ready to guard me today.   Outcome: Help will come!  Knock out!

Punch #1: Choose to thank and praise 

Punch #2: Speak gentle truth to others

Punch #3: Pray!  Ask the Lord for help and thank Him

Bonus:  vs. 8-9 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.  Go find this stuff to think on, listen to, and meditate on.  Instead of letting your thoughts just come and go - go get some of your own!  Find the true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, and excellent in this life and pile it up around you and let it sink in.

One, Two, Three, Punch! ~Your Fellow Sojourner

Better With Time

        For Chris’ birthday this year I made lasagna, home made lasagna.  You know, the six hour version with twelve steps in the recipe.  When we sat down for his birthday dinner, and believe me I was ready to sit down, we enjoyed a rarity.  It was so good.  We enjoyed the benefits of slow and deliberate cooking.  No frozen lasagna here.  It was a true joy. 

   Then, a week later, at the end of a long day, your’s truly did not feel like making anything home made.  So, out came the box of spaghetti noodles and the jar of store bought sauce.  The convenience was nice, but the taste… I soldiered my way through that plate of pasta. Afterward I said, “no more!”  Like Scarlett O’Hara, I vowed never to serve my family pseudo pasta sauce again.  The rich taste we had experienced with the lasagna was not in the quick pasta dinner.  The missing ingredient was time.  

Our culture loves anything fast. So why do we veer to the fast and furious? Faster holds out the lie that we are gaining time, while slower means watching more of our time pass by.  The truth about time is much more complex however.  Time is all about trust.  Do we trust the season that we are in?  King Solomon summed it up for us in Ecclesiastes, “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.” There is a key phrase in that verse, “under heaven.”  Our days and hours, years and seasons, are gifts from Heaven granted to us by our Creator.  Our time is not a given, but a gift.  

Black Marble Clock by Paul Cezzane

There is always something to do and always a season to do it in.  Both the what to do and the when to do it are given to us by God.  God does not want us to wring anxious hands or to follow our feelings and urges without a purpose or a care.  In order to know how to live well with the time that we are given, we must come to know the Father of Lights, from whom all good gifts come.  

To know someone takes time and intentionality.  With time, you come to know a person’s likes and dislikes, character and giftings.  The same is true with the Lord.  He is our Good Shepherd, who loves to lead and care for the sheep of His pasture.  Therefore, we look to Him and follow His voice.  He wants us to know Him, and He wants us to trust Him.  

Christ was never in a hurry while here on earth, but He always did His Father’s will.  This meant that Jesus did not heal every cripple, nor did He cure every disease.  He did not converse with every lost soul, nor did He cast out every demon in Israel.  He only did the work His Father sent Him to do.  Christ could say from the cross with all truth, “It is finished.”   His work was finished, and what a work it was!  Hallelujah, what a work!  It is in the life and death of Jesus that we can see that there is never any loss in Christ, for all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved.  

I need to grow in waiting, listening, and following my Father’s voice.  But I do not readily embrace God’s specific daily will for me.  I am tempted by my flesh’s craving for a fast and easy substitute for what will truly satisfy, resting in the will of God.  Instead of resting, I often choose striving.  And when I am needlessly fighting to make something happen according to my own will, I am not resting.

I want growth and depth in my life, but will God’s promise to complete the good work begun in me hold true?  Can I trust Him, really trust Him with all that is in front of me today?  Elizabeth Elliot says that the process of growth and maturity in people is often slow, invisible, and non measurable while it is happening, like waiting for immature fruit trees to bear fruit.  

Olive Trees With Yellow Sky and Sun by Vincent Van Gogh

My grandfather wanted to grow fruit trees on his property. And so like anything else he wanted to do, he researched and planned methodically.  He knew it would take time, and that was the hardest part.  Every summer I would ask, “Can we eat the fruit yet?”   And for several years the response was, “Not yet, but soon.”  I learned to trust in my grandfather’s patient waiting.  Eventually, my grandfather’s venture paid off and he had peaches, nectarines, and jams and jellies!!  The patient waiting and work produced a joyful harvest that was multiplied to many.  

All living things grow, and this growth cannot be rushed or circumvented. God grows us in the trusting of His ways and His time, especially in seasons of trial and suffering.  We come to see that He knows the end from the beginning, and that His promises are not slow but always on time.  He produces the endurance we need in our lives, and through this endurance, we will see the character we longed to see.  The tree will bear fruit, and our hope will not disappoint us.  

  ~ Your Fellow Sojourner