Sunday Recap

This past Sunday we kicked off our Christmas series "Blue Christmas". We opened with a video that I hope to post later today that was hilarious!

We started the series with "The Blues of Anxiety"

We spent some time in Philippians 4:6-7

"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. "

This passage has really hit me. Do not be anxious about my weight, my family, my finances, basically NOTHING!

John Piper in his awesome book "Future Grace" (Okay so I think all Piper's books are awesome!) says the following about anxiety....

"Anxiety is a condition of the heart that gives rise to many other sinful states
of mind. Anxiety about finances can give rise to coveting and greed and
hoarding and stealing. Anxiety about succeeding at some task can make you
irritable and abort. Anxiety about relationships can make you withdrawn and
indifferent and uncaring about other people. Anxiety about how someone
will respond to you can make you cover over the truth and lie about
things. If anxiety could be conquered, a mortal blow would be
struck to many other sins."

Paul gives us some God-focused responses to anxiety...

1. Prayer

Many of us have tried to pray about our troubles but we still worry. I would challenge us to take a hard look at the way we pray. Are we praying "prescription prayers". You know if you could go to the doctor and tell them you were sick they would write a prescription of what to take that would make the illness go away. Many times we pray like that. "God, I have this problem will you make go away by doing such and such." This kind of prayer can border more on wishing than releasing our concerns into the hands of our Father trusting that He knows best.

Prayer is not prescribing it is releasing.

2. Thanksgiving

Now thanksgiving is not something you find in most self-help books on how to deal with anxiety. Thanksgiving helps us remember that life is not a series of random events but God is in control and is concerned about our lives.

So do we thank Him for loosing our job and our debt? Don't start with the problem. Thank Him for the Gospel. Thank Him for taking the nails and the suffering for you. Thank Him for being willing to endure this pain for you. Thank Him for paving the way to Himself with His own blood. Thank Him for your blessings in your life.

The Result is not that all our problems go away. The result is that we get His peace. His peace that human thinking can't quite get. A calmness that is beyond human reasoning.