It is easy to say, “Don’t be anxious.” It is harder to pull that off. This daily devotional looks at exactly what God is commanding disciples to do and how He plans for us to accomplish that.
Nuggets
God wants us to be focused on Him, not our circumstances.
We keep our focus on God by remaining in communication with Him.
To read devotions in the Redo for Godliness series, click the appropriate button below.
Devotions in the Growing Our Soul series
In the last devotion, we said that God renews our peace when we face life’s trials. We got that from the verse that says to “cast all [our] anxiety on him because he cares for [us]” (I Pet. 5: 7 NIV).
Since we are God’s children, we don’t have to face the anxiety alone. Paul gave us instructions on how to cast our cares on God.
Let's Put It into Context
Here is a running list of what we’ve discussed previously.
Watch Our Reactions
“Do not be anxious about anything …” (Phil. 4: 6 ESV)
God wants us to be focused on Him, not our circumstances.
You would think that disciples would not have anxiety. We have all of these promises from God.
- “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me” (Jn. 14: 1 ESV)
- “Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all” (II Thess. 3: 16 ESV)
- “And my God will supply all your needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4: 19 CSB)
- “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8: 28 ESV).
God says the same things over and over again in Scriptures. “Put your trust in Me.” We need to be dependent on God.
However, when our world starts to get shaky, the anxiety ramps up. We can’t seem to stop ourselves.
I can see where Punshon was coming from. He said anxiety was an evil that should be avoided.
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Anxiety is caused by taking our focus off of God. It is like we don’t trust Him to do what He has promised — provide for us and take care of us.
The flip side of that is when we value world view things more than God things. That can cause anxiety as our focus is different than how we are made.
Punshon made an excellent point. Having anxiety may be a matter of degrees. We have to be even keeled. We can’t take things to the extreme.
It is okay to mourn a person’s death. We just can’t rail at God for the loss, say we are totally on our own now, or bury our heads in the sand.
Our anxiety should be tempered by the fact that God has us in the palm of His hand. He is in control.
The modern versions translate it as don’t worry or don’t be anxious. The King James Version tells us to be careful.
To me, that tells us how to not worry and have anxiety. It means that we watch what situations into which we put ourselves. It has a more proactive action to it.
Barnett cautioned that we shouldn’t just “…take life as it comes.” We aren’t meant to be victims of circumstances.
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Spurgeon wrote, “‘The life is more than meat,’ and the soul than life.” We should not worry over the small stuff or the insignificant stuff. Unfortunately, we do seem to expand a lot of effort worrying about things that are moot points.
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When we are anxious over the big things in life, then we really are doing it wrong if we don’t put it in God’s control. It is an indictment of our faith if we aren’t relying on God then.
Most importantly, we shouldn’t worry over a temporary world. We should keep our focus on eternity.
The condition of our soul is much more important than what is happening in this life.
Look to the Solution
“… but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God” (Phil. 4: 6 ESV)
We keep our focus on God by remaining in communication with Him.
So, how are we supposed to combat our anxiety?
- Prayer
- Supplication
- Thanksgiving
We can’t do it by ourselves. We can’t do it with worldly methods. We can’t depend on a significant other or family member.
We need to go to the Source. “Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge” (Ps. 62: 8 NIV).
Why is this important? Bartlett said, “The prayer of faith is the natural and appointed instrumentality for the repression of over anxiety.
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Prayer
Prayer is a two-way communication with God in which we pour out our soul to Him. Miller said that this is where blessings are sought.
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Sometimes, it might be easy to think, if God knows what we are going to ask for even before we ask, why should we have to ask? There are a couple of good reasons.
If we don’t ask, then it means we are not submitted to God. We may feel we are entitled to what God wants to give us.
Spurgeon gave another reason. He said that the asking makes the receiving of the mercies sweeter.
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It is to our benefit that we pray. It is through the two-way communication that we learn Who God really is. He reveals more of Himself to us than is in the Scriptures.
But think of it this way. We are praying to the Sovereign God. God’s sovereignty means He has supreme power, giving Him control over all things without accountability to a higher power.
Shouldn’t that soothe our anxiety?
We are to pray to God about everything. That means we shouldn’t keep a portion of our lives back from His control.
Being able to ask God anything does not mean we get to ask Him for a flood of money. It doesn’t mean we get to petition that something not be a sin anymore — or at a minimum, we get a pass.
We do have to ask in His Will. Our petitions have to be genuine. They have to recognize God as our Creator and Ruler.
Supplication
Supplication is our specific requests to God. Miller also said that supplication is where we show our express disapproval of evil.
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“… let your requests be made known to God” (Phil. 4: 6 ESV). We can ask God anything.
Bartlett reminded us what this does and doesn’t mean. He wrote, “Enlightened prayer does not ask for miracle or any change in the Divine will.”
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“… let your requests be made known to God” (Phil. 4: 6 ESV). We can ask God anything.
Brown argued that we should take the foolish and shortsighted requests to God anyway. This happens “so that the proven character of your faith — more valuable than gold which, though perishable, is refined by fire — may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (I Pet. 1: 7 CSB).
But Brown also reminded us that God is not forced to answer those foolish prayers. We shouldn’t pitch a hissy fit when He doesn’t.
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I would add that God is perfectly entitled to give a prayer an answer of no. He isn’t a gum ball machine, where we put in a quarter prayer and get our candy out.
Thanksgiving
Instead of being fearful, we should be thankful. Even when our anxiety is at its peak, we should be thankful.
Spurgeon said that we will receive our blessings only after we have prayed with thanksgiving. The focus has to be on God.
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We have a huge reason to be thankful. God responds to us with mercy. God’s mercy is an act of sovereign will that produces an unexpected and undeserved response from God as He responds in love to our needs.
We were the ones who disobeyed God. If it would have been us, we would have closed up shop and moved far away from the offenders.
God didn’t banish us forever. Instead — even before He created mankind so we could sin — He designed the Plan of Salvation in order to restore our relationships with Him when we did sin.
We should be very thankful for that. If our relationships aren’t restored with Him, we will spend eternity in hell.
To read a related devotion, click on the appropriate button below.
Miller said something interesting. He said we are to “… draw upon [our] experience as well as [our] faith …” This is where we connect the dots between what God wants us to be and who we are.
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But doesn’t that make us even more thankful? We see where God has supported us and sustained us. We learned first-hand that we don’t have to be anxious.
That is where the gratitude comes in.
Making the Connections
“And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4: 7 ESV)
Spurgeon acknowledged that we are going to always have trials. We are never going to totally get rid of them.
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But those trials bring the peace. When our inner selves are calmed, we go from anxiety to peace.
How Do We Apply This?
- Pray for God’s peace that passes all understanding.
- Pray. There is no limit to what God can do.
- Pray in faith. Believe in Him.
- Pray in God’s Will. Don’t ask for things that is against His character and then be surprised — and upset — when He says no.
- We can get particular with God. Nothing is too big or too small that we can’t take it to Him.
- We can ask multiple times. It isn’t a once-and-done thing.
- Always exhibit a thankful attitude.
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Bartlett gave us this advice. He wrote, “While we are with God let us think of His goodness in welcoming us, His former gracious answers, His countless undeserved and even unsought blessings.” He also said, “Peace comes by power and power by prayer.”
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We should always look to God for guidance and strength. He will hold us in the palm of His hand.
Father God. We want to rely on You. We can only do that when we keep our focus on You. Keep us in Your Will. Amen.
What do you think?
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