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THE PEACE OF BELIEVING PRAYER
Philippians 4: 6,7
God wants us to come to Him in prayer for all the good, the bad, and the ugly. In this passage Paul begins by addressing the worry that came with both life and Christian living and urged the people to find refuge in the “open door policy” that God has so freely offered to us. He wants to fulfill your perfect picture of a father and then blow your mind away some more. Paul wants us to realize and depend upon the truth that there is no single thing in our lives that is not applicable for prayer. EVERYTHING was created by God so there is nothing He is not involved in and I'm sure He just simply enjoys hearing us talk to Him about all that He is so deeply involved in and has so painstakingly worked into or out of our lives. I feel we honor God by talking with Him and bringing ourselves to Him in prayer because we are also acknowledging His omnipotence. God cares to know how many grains of sand are on a beach and how many hairs we have on our head so I cannot possibly imagine there could be anything not noteworthy of prayer.
Worry is a griping, all-consuming, and paralyzing emotional trap we get ourselves into. It keeps us in the past or future as we blindly walk in the present. Only in the future are we then able to see today after it has become a thing of the past. The good News is God is omnipresent also, meaning the past, present, and the future are all who He is. No situation or season is lost or takes precedence over another. All is one and what is cleared with God lasts forever and across the whole board. Paul speaks of the power of prayer in the position of revisiting the past and when we CAN be glad God continues to be Lord of all time. When we have strayed and sinned we could have been doomed with no pardon. But with God's grace, with the death of His son and His being the same yesterday, today and tomorrow, the benefits continue for all of us and forever, and the things of our own pasts do not need to cripple us, but rather become the positive building blocks of today and for tomorrow. When we have come before God to earnestly ask for forgiveness, and accept with faith, these things He will forget. Then we thank Him for the gift of prayer and forgiveness and offer ourselves in full submission to the will of God. Barclay sums this up extremely well in his Bible study series,
“It is only when we are fully convinced that God is working ALL [stress added] things together for good that we can really feel to Him the perfect gratitude which believing prayer demands.”
It is our trust in God's love, wisdom, and power that we will find God's peace and redemption through prayer. Hope has been equally instilled in each one of us, but it is only accessible to those who are willing to believe and submit.
“Saints are those who flow in the Spirit of God.” - Quote from a Yogi Tea bag
THE DOUBLE COMMITMENT
Colossians 1: 2-8
These verses address the dual loyalty in the spirit of Christian living. Any Christian knows that living actively requires us to respond to and engage in the affairs surrounding us. We must not only live by faith in Christ knowing what we believe, but we must also be sensitive to our fellow man – our beliefs translated into action. They cannot merely co-exist. Neither can the two be productive interchangeably. Likewise, a magnet cannot exist without its dual poles. I am not suggesting that faith and love are poles but they are integral characteristics of an effective Christian. God is big on action and this faith will transpire into beliefs which in turn will generate the power that produces the action (love). The awesome thing about having a relationship with Christ is that when things seem too complex these are the direct results of both the merging with Christ and now an emergence into the world to spread the Gospel. When life feels so overwhelming sometimes it could be because I have been looking to the left and to the right surveying the functionality of the networks in my life instead of looking up to recognize that all these things are diverging from a single, benevolent Heavenly source. Only then can I regroup and enjoy all these opportunities that are meant to converge once again to become His perfect plan. These complex webs of circumambiencies were put into my life as a gift of freedom to choose to live in this world while remaining apart from it in His light. Also, this will ONLY work if I rest in the hope that ONLY Christ can offer. This hope brings peace through knowing that God's way is the best way and the ONLY way. AMEN