Promises - Peace That Doesn’t Make Sense

The Worry Engine

Today I wanted to look into one of the most practical day-to-day promises of God. We all have crap in our lives that trigger a “worry engine.” I call it an engine because as soon as it starts up, it seems to run on its own. The worry engine gets warmed up and stronger the more fuel I put in (fear, what if scenarios, lies and untruths). As long as I continue to feed the engine, it just doesn’t stop. God knows our hearts, knew that this would happen and He has the answer for it.

Philippians 4:6-7 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

There is no shortage of things we can worry about.

We worry about our safety and terrorism. We worry about our jobs and having "enough" money. We worry about the country and political / racial division. The problem is that worry accomplishes absolutely nothing except making things feel worse. Pastor Rick Warren puts it succinctly, “worry can’t change the past, it can’t change the future, it just messes up today”

God wanted the church in Philippi to hear this message because He knew that getting along with each other and dealing with the cares of this world is not easy. He wanted to encourage the church to love each other and rest in the security that comes from following Christ. What is even more amazing is that Paul wrote this while he was in prison facing the real dangers of persecution and execution. 

Here is what the promise says. God has so much compassion toward you that if you take your worry and anxiety to Him, pray to him about everything in your life, practice thankfulness that He is in control of all of it, and make the decision to drop the worry…He will give you a peace that doesn’t even makes sense given what you are going through. I will admit that this is not a small order to fill at first.

I need to pray about everything?

Pray about my job – Yep. Pray about paying my bills (or not being able to) – Yes. Pray about the presentation coming up – Yes again. Pray about my wife having cancer – Yes for sure. There is NOTHING that God doesn’t want to hear from you about. He is eager to know what is in your heart and mind. He knows it anyway, but He wants you to spend time talking to him about it. God wants us to give the cares of this world over to Him and let Him carry the weight of them.

Carrying what you can’t control

There have been way too many times when I have carried the burdens of things I can’t control as worry, and for what? That worry didn’t change one iota of the situation. Most often, the worry and worst case scenario thoughts I dwelt on weren’t even accurate. If we hand all this stuff over to Him, we can rest and let Him deal with it. It doesn’t mean that the logistics of our lives magically reorient themselves or circumstances instantly change so that I have no challenges or trials.

What God is saying is that He will give you the peace to get through them. I can tell you that after holding on to these commands and the promise that follows, my life is pretty much worry free. My life is not perfect nor trial free. But, I don’t have any worry. I don’t have any fear or anxiety about the future. I let Him take care of that. All I have to do is the next right thing and love those in front of me.

If you are worried – if you spend your nights staring into the ceiling playing out all the options – if you are fearful of what the future holds; seize this promise. It will change your life.