It’s easy to gloss over the words of Philippians 4:6-7: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everthing, 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.”
Our eyes naturally hit on the words: ”anxious”, “everything”, “prayer and petition”, “present”, “peace of God”, “guard your heart”. And from this we gather that in times of anxiety, we must pray, offer up our requests to God, and God will grant us peace.
But what about that word “thanksgiving”? We see it, but we figure it must be an odd appendage of “prayer and petition” and we think little of it since it doesn’t quite fit. How do you give thanks amidst of anxiety? Perhaps it’s some cursory thing–s a “thank you” tossed in at the beginning of our prayers.
Last week, I shared how actually the words “thank you” are critical. Gratitude is the posture with which we must pray all our prayers, especially the anxious ones. The peace of God is not a parting gift that comes after a haphazard litany of our concerns. The peace of God is what we receive when we come to our knees and choose to give thanks when our hearts only want to complain.
We thank God for his presence, his nearness. He is Immanuel. We thank God for his character. He is the good God that refuses to withold even his own son from us. We thank God for his redeeming sovereignty that works all things for the good of those who love him. We thank God not because our circumstances lend themselves easily to gratitude. We give thanks because we have faith. We believe in a God who is near, good and always in control.
This is the peace which transcends understanding. It’s the ability to say “thank you” and really mean it even when everything is falling apart because our eyes are set on what is eternal.
Dihan
November 3, 2008 at 11:26 pm |
Thank you for sharing parts of Julie’s testimony.
I only wish I could have heard it personally myself.
Toni Morrison once described suffering as the third face of God and that the only way to truly deal with it, was to walk face forward right into it.
In some ways, I feel like Paul is saying the same thing.
Initially, I took Paul’s message to receive anxiety/suffering with thanksgiving as a slap in the face. It was bombastic, counter intuitive, utterly lacking in sensibility, etc. And I fell into this cliched moment of “why should bad things happen to good people?” *impatient hand waving / exaggerated intake and sigh of breath*
But it was just as you articulated in your sermon; how can we experience the redeeming joy and thanksgiving of God’s grace and mercy without first being broken?
It was through this revelation that I began to appreciate Paul’s recurring themes of joy and thanksgiving in Philippians. Suffering for God as “privilege” started to come out of the woodwork and now, I deal with my times of momentary darkness and ulcer-inducing anxiety with renewed faith.
On a more serious note, we should never be ashamed of our suffering or be so vulnerable in our anxiety. Despite the fact that we as broken people are filled with so many holes, we still remain beautiful in the sight of God.
And that I believe, is in itself, powerfully redemptive.
November 6, 2008 at 3:12 pm |
Dan,
thank you for the encouraging words.
our hope is that ODPC would be a hospital rather than a museum.
Broken people, finding life in Jesus—it’s a beautiful thing.
PD