<\/p>\n
Philippians 4:6\u20137<\/a>, \u00a0\u00a0Do 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.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Don\u2019t be anxious\u00a0about anything<\/em>. Rejoice in the Lord\u00a0always<\/em>. This God not only holds out peace in every uncertain circumstance, but with that peace, he holds out joy \u2014 an\u00a0always<\/em>\u00a0joy. Can you bear to believe that? Do you believe that the God of infinite strength and worth is able not only to still the raging storms in your mind but also to place a blazing lantern of joy in the darkness of your boat? Do you believe that the God who daily caters for 120 million cardinals and tailors the brilliant petals of billions of tulips might be able to find and satisfy you in this valley?<\/p>\n \u201cOne way God proves his glory in the universe is by holding and satisfying his people through terrible uncertainties.\u201d<\/p>\n You probably know someone who has survived horrible uncertainty with surprising joy. Who\u2019s been one of those joy-in-anxiety miracles in your life? When you think of him or her, you likely don\u2019t see the bright, lighthearted face we often picture when we think of joy. No, joy in the valley of uncertainty is often a heavier, more serious kind of gladness. It\u2019s not the joy of a five-year-old learning to ride a bike (I love that joy too). It\u2019s more, I imagine, like the joy of a soldier finally getting the upper hand in a fierce battle, with his closest friends at his shoulder.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a joy buried in every season of uncertainty, even on battlefields. That\u2019s why Paul can say, \u201cRejoice in the Lord\u00a0always<\/em>\u201d \u2014 and then repeat himself: \u201cagain I will say, rejoice.\u201d<\/p>\n So, is joy possible in anxiety? Is your anxiety beyond the scope of God\u2019s \u201calways\u201d? One way God proves his glory in the universe is by holding and satisfying his people through terrible uncertainties. And there\u2019s no uncertainty too great for him \u2014 not even yours.<\/p>\n We need to remember that Paul wrote these verses from the shadows of prison \u2014 and he knew he might not make it out this time (Philippians 1:20<\/a>). His worry was death. When he wrote, \u201cDo not be anxious about anything\u201d and \u201cRejoice always,\u201d he wasn\u2019t printing pithy Christianese slogans from a place of comfort and security. If any of us has reasons to be anxious, he had more.<\/p>\n And yet right there \u2014 in the injustice of prison, in the hostility of persecution, at the very doorstep of death \u2014 he could rejoice because he always had more reasons to rejoice than he had to worry. He could say, \u201cI count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord\u201d (Philippians 3:8<\/a>).<\/p>\n If he could rejoice even then, can\u2019t you rejoice even now? (Segal)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Philippians 4:6\u20137, \u00a0\u00a0Do 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. Don\u2019t be anxious\u00a0about anything. Rejoice in the Lord\u00a0always. This … Continue reading “65.a. Philippians 4:6\u20137”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-199445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-prayers"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199445"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":199448,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199445\/revisions\/199448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}