Anxiety, Coping, and the Peace of God

    "4Rejoice in the Lord always.  I will say it again: Rejoice!  5Let your gentleness be evident to all.  The Lord is near.  6Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.  8Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.  9Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me--put into practice.  And the God of peace will  be with you."   Philippians 4:4-9

   This is one of those days where I have trouble coming into a time of communion with God.  One of those days where I'm just not feeling it.  I have a hard time quieting down and allowing God to speak.  However, God is teaching me this year that on these days, when it is easy for me to ignore Him and slip into my own world, my own thoughts, I need to continue to spend time with Him, in spite of how I feel.  I wrote all of Philippians 4:4-9, but I am going to focus on verses 6-7.

   When I'm frustrated with stuff I tend to shut down and run.  God being in my rearview mirror.  This is a strange phenomenom to me and something I struggle with mightily.  Anxiety in my life leads to complacency.  God's word says: "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, 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."  The problem that I come across is stopping at the but.  I don't want to be anxious about anything, however when I become anxious I ignore the but.  Therefore, I miss out on peace.

   Everyone in this world wants peace.  It doesn't matter what you believe or what you're associated with, deep down there is a longing for peace.  It's why we run to so many different things that make us feel good.  In the inner most part of our being we are programmed for peace. Anxiety, however, does not go away no matter how much we seek "peace".  You see, peace is not some out there concept or some fleeting feeling, but a consistant communion with God.  "In everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God."  When we are struggling with life and anxiety is creeping in around us God is saying: "Talk to me, I understand".  He is begging us to come to Him.  What I struggle with more than anything is that I don't want to come.  I have hardwired myself to be "self-sufficient" to do it on my own and I walk away from the "peace of God, which transcends all understanding."  ALL UNDERSTANDING!  Are you kidding me?!

   The most ridiculous mis-conception in this world is to seek peace apart from God.  It just isn't going to happen.  It's not there.  I can fill myself with anything and everything, but it won't be peace.  When anxiety comes, I can run to whatever makes me feel good, but it won't produce peace, it'll just mask the problem.  Even if I face what I'm anxious about and deal with it in a healthy way, there will still be a missing link, I guarantee it.  Peace can only come from God.  He is asking to carry our burdens, He wants to help.  He, not only promises His peace to us if we come to Him, but says: "the peace of God...will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."  His peace is protection, it will guard us and shield us.

   I know this has been a little bit of a rant...it's late at night and I'm writing this one out of an anxious and frustrated soul...but let me end with this to help you understand what I mean about protection.  Speaking to my first and second paragraph.  When I get anxious, especially lately, I run from God and I tend to shut down, I'm not very motivated and for lack of a better word I get depressed.  In about a week I am going to start my teaching career and for the past couple of days I have grown extremely anxious and in turn have watched and read things about sports.  These are things that I go to to feel better, to ignore what's going on, it's my way of coping, but it aids in the process of me 'shutting down'.  I say this to explain what would be the opposite and to speak to myself and you, if you are anxious and struggling, don't turn to the same things you have before instead, "by prayer and petition present your requests to God", because His peace will "guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus" trust me.  The peace of God, in this time of anxiety for me, doesn't allow me to believe the lies that target my insecurities with my new job, his peace tells me to trust Him, to trust the gifts He's given me, and to let Him guide me.  In other words, His peace protects me.  We all have insecurities and ways we cope with stuff, it's human nature.  But, the peace of God doesn't agree with human nature, or even what we can comprehend...it transcends all understanding.  It's time to choose true peace.

   

 

Righteousness from God through faith: Letting go of the law

    

     My whole life I have struggled with this, but may not have realized it until today.  Paul writes in Philippians 3 that we should have no confidence in the flesh, even though he has reasons for such confidence.  You see, Paul, before he truly met Christ, was a pharisee.  He believed, because of his heritage, that he was a righteous man, and he was going to prove it.  He was more zealous a pharisee than even people his own age and persecuted 'early Christians' because of where he stood.  He states in Philippians 3:end of 4-6
     "If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eight day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless."
     He was a stud in the worlds eyes, and he had worldy confidence.  Everyone in the upper ranks respected him, and called him righteous.  But God saw him differently.  You see, God doesn't care about how good 'our stock' is, he isn't interested in our personal worldly righteousness.  Righteousness doesn't come from ourselves or human standards.  Rightesousness comes from God through faith, that's it.
     Paul continues in Philippians 3:7-11
     "But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.  What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.  I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ--the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.  I want to know Christ and the power of his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead."
     Paul considers everything 'rubbish' for the sake of Christ.  Which by Christ standards they are.  God states that our works of righteousness are like 'filthy rags' in Isaiah 64:6, which translated directly is even worse and more disgusting, which makes it difficult to realize how much I've held onto my own righteousness my entire life.  Just like Paul, I was born into a family that was in the church and had been for years.  I always was there, I grew up in it, and when I was ready I joined the worship team, the drama ministry, and our youth groups leadership team.  I was just like Paul, or Saul, the pre-Christ verion of Paul.  My confidence was in my abilities, and I was better than most.
     This is the problem, when we have faith in ourselves, we don't have faith, we have self righteousness and we persecute anyone who doesn't measure up to our version of that.  I 'persecuted' Christians who didn't measure up to the righteousness that I created through my own human standards and have continued to today.  But Christ is grabbing ahold of me and my backwards thinking.
    Faith and righteousness are not produced by human works or good deeds.  They aren't created by how many things I do in a week or the bible study's that I attend.  1 Thessalonians 1:3 says it much better than I ever could: "We continually remember before our God and Father your workd produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ."
      Righteousness only comes from God through faith that produces works.   
      I'm realizing more and more that self-centered Christianity leads to a life without Christ and is no longer what I want.  I agree with Paul that 'I consider them all rubbish, that I may gain Christ.  He is who I want, even if it looks different than what is expected.
     "For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.  Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame.  Their mind is on earthly things.  But our citizenship is in heaven.  And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.  Therefore, my brothers, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, that is how you should stand firm in the Lord, dear friends!"
Philippians 3:18-4:1

There is so much more that can be said on this topic, especially about the battle between pride and depression/insecurity that I've noticed(and heard people preach about) that goes on with self righteousness and how it has affected my life, but this is what I felt compelled to share today and hope that it causes you to think, as it has me today, in your pursuit of Christ.

The slavery of sin

"We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.  I do not understand what I do.  For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.  And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.  As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.  I  know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature/flesh.  For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.  For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing.  Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.  For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.  What a wretched man I am!  Who will rescue me from this body of death?  Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.  For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature/flesh, God did by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering.  And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit."

Romans 7:14-8:4

I had planned on only writing a couple of verses, but it is so hard to cut off scripture, because it works together and there is even so much more to this passage then I wrote, but this drives the point of what Christ is sharing with me today.

Over this last year and throughout life, I have begun to realize how easy it is to let sin creep in and do work in my mind and body.  I relate to what Paul is saying here in Romans because even though I want to do good, I am weak when it comes to doing it.  I feel, as though, I'm in a battle and one that I cannot win.  It seems hopeless at times and the picture above is what I visualize in my mind.  I am bound in chains, a slave to this master called sin.  The problem with this is that I don't need to be.  I don't need to be in this constant conundrum of what do I do, how can I get passed this, am I ever going to be free from these sins?  This is why you can't have the beginning of this passage of scripture without the next section.  Yes, Paul explains that there are two powers at work in him, sin/evil and good/the Spirit.  He talks about how his sinful nature is what causes him to do the evil.  He delights in God's law, but the law of the flesh/sinful nature, is right there with him and wages war against him.  He even crys out "What a wretched man I am!" which is a cry I've uttered far too often.  But there is incredible hope.

Christ's death on the cross and resurrection to life has broken sin's power over us.  Although we do have that nature ingrained in us because of the fall, "through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death."  The spiritual law was/is weak to save us, because it is powerless to save us from ourselves and the law of sin and death.  We are weak human beings and therefore, without Christ, we would never measure up to the standards that God has set for us and we would all be destined for hell.  But God condemned sin in all of us and we can now meet the requirements he has set for us, through Christ, by living according to His Spirit.

I've been a Christian for practically my whole life and have read this passage many times, but today may have been the first time that it has ever clicked.  I had a friend tell me over the weekend that God is offering us this incredible gift of freedom and some of us have accepted the present, but never truly unwrapped it to see what's inside.  We have a choice to make here and I want to reference the picture one more time before I close.  Look at the chains around that persons hands, they are bound, they shackled, imprisoned.  Now imagine they are broken, the person's hands are set free from imprisonment, they can walk away without turning back, but they're afraid, afraid to move forward away from the life they used to live, so instead of running as quickly as they can away from the chains that held them, they pick them back up, not tightening them around their wrists like they used to be, but just holding on to them enough to not be free.  It is time to let go, time to let God be in control and let His Spirit change us.  Evil will always be right there with us, that won't change, but Christ has conquered sin, so we don't have to let it control us.  We are free, it's time we begin to live that way!



Mundane Life

You know what's crazy?  How easy it is to get excited about something and then have it die in the midst of mundane life.  Life is an interesting thing and something that can very easily slip by.  I remember just yesterday I was the new guy at my job, a recently married man, not knowing what to expect, excited.  Then I woke up and I've been married for 9 months and I'm no longer the new guy.  Weird how that happens, right?  No, actually, not really.  I think life can just keep on going without us.  We're trying to get through the day and that's it.  Life may seem slow, but the days go by quick and with no meaning.  We seem trapped in this never ending circle.  So what happens?  What changes so we all don't wake up and realize we're 50 years old?  Stillness.

"Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."  Psalm 46:10. 

We need this each day, to make each day it's own day.  To recognize God above all and over all and to realize we have a purpose.  Each spot we are at in life has a purpose.  God doesn't allow us to be somewhere without purpose, so why then do I allow myself to live purposeless?  I don't know, but if God were really impacting my life on a daily basis I wouldn't be, so what needs to change?  My stillness.  Without stillness before God there is no change, there is no purpose because no matter how much I deep down want Christ, my actions haven't put that into practice and I've missed out on my oppurtunity to live that day for Him.  I must get before Him in stillness so His purpose can work itself out in my life, today.

Why did I start this?

I've never really thought about starting a blog before.  I'm not a fancy writer or an extreme intellectual guy.  I just enjoy to write, not necessarily the process of writing, but the end result.  Writing for me is an outlet, something I need to do.  I need to get my thoughts on paper and I also want to share some of them.  I love to discuss topics and continue to learn and grow.  My main objective is to continually walk towards the truth of the gospel of Christ.  To continually seek after Him everyday and this is a way to do that.  I'd love for people to read this and begin to think/ponder thoughts that they have, even if they disagree with mine.  I'm not all knowing and don't have incredible wisdom, but God does and the thoughts that I write down are here to help in the process of growing towards Him.

I am not one to check my work while I journal I just do it and see what happens, it helps me think.  I've been in a funk this year and have struggled with different issues that have caused me to be afraid to think, afraid to open my mind for fear of what thought would enter my head, but God is bigger than that.  Fear is False Evidence Appearing Real and if we let it control us, we're done and our true potential will never be met.  So here it is, the thoughts of an ordinary man living in a small town, seeking after his Creator.  Hope this is an enjoyable read and if not, cool I'm just going to keep on writing.