Philippians 4:6-7 “6Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
I ended last time with these verses, where God clearly relates the absence of anxiety with the presence of peace. God’s encouragement and instruction to us in the Bible is quite clear: we should look to Him, focus on Him, trust Him, turn to Him, rest in Him, and delight in His “consolations”. We need to know Him, so we can know what He says about Himself and about us.
Thought stopping is one technique used in the mental health field that may help with anxiety. The idea here is to stop the anxious thoughts, and then replace them with positive or neutral thoughts. As Christians, those replacement thoughts are thoughts about our God and prayer to Him, which must be on a foundation of faith and believing.
The first step is to recognize the thoughts that are anxiety provoking; they may flow so freely and be so familiar that it can be difficult to recognize them. It is amazing how holding on to anxious thoughts can be justified by statements like “Well it could happen”. Darned right it could happen! The very real possibility that something could happen is often what feeds anxiety. So can healing and prosperity. But do we obsess about those? I know I don’t!
Let’s break down those couple of verses: God sets prayer in opposition to anxiety, giving us a replacement thought for our anxious thoughts. In fact, He gives us several different options that work beautifully and completely together. I am not a Greek scholar, but let’s look at the various words used in this section. Instead of having anxious thoughts we can take everything to God through:
Prayer: proseuche: prayer addressed to God (who we pray to is important; prayer cannot be just more anxious thoughts: it is a conversation with our faithful God, our able God, our willing God, our loving God, our Abba Father with a focus on Him and His strength not on the problem)
Supplication: deesis: a seeking/asking/entreating (have you ever had a child ask you over and over again for something? It might be if you will play with them, if it’s time to do something yet, for a puppy or a special toy. Have you ever noticed how they just don’t give up? Anxious thoughts don’t give up either, yet we often give up to easily in prayer. In Matthew 7:7-8, Jesus tells His disciples to “ask and keep on asking, seek and keep on seeking, knock and keep on knocking” until you get your answer)
Thanksgiving: eucharistia: giving of thanks (thanks in the midst of anxiety demands a shift in focus from the problem to God; the anxiety monsters become less fearsome when we stop feeding them with thoughts)
Requests: altema: what is or has been asked for (if you want chocolate cake, would you ask for Brussel sprouts? Sounds ridiculous, right? Work on being clear about what you are asking for. Anxious thoughts have a way of ending up far away from the original concern because they grow in strength and number when we give room to them; the original concern may be forgotten, or replaced by anxiety itself, and our prayers may become complaints rather than requests)
God then gives us a promise: when we are willing to let go of anxious thoughts and give it all to Him in prayer, trusting and believing that He is able, willing and loving, then God promises us we will have:
Peace: eirene: the Jewish greeting was and is “shalom” or “peace”. The peace we have through Christ goes beyond being wished as a greeting, but is given, because God is peace, and He lives inside us through His Holy Spirit; we are His temple. You, o anxious person, can house peace!
This peace that we are promised “surpasses all comprehension”, is so far above and beyond us that we cannot grasp it’s meaning. And, it has another feature as well: we are not only promised peace, but we are also promised that that peace will:
Guard: phroureo: to protect by guarding or keeping in its grasp (the peace of God will not let us go, and will act as the guardian of our hearts and minds against the challenges we face in this world. But the peace of God will not magically appear and take over: you have to be an active participant in the process, intentionally and willingly giving room and space for that marvelous peace to do its work)
So then, to sum up, these are steps to take to win the fight over anxiety:
Recognize each anxious thought
Don’t allow any anxious thought to take up space in your mind and life intentionally reject each anxious thought with prayer to God
Be specific in your prayer
Be persistent in your prayer
Be thankful in your prayer
Recognize that you have been given the peace of God and let that peace blossom in place of each anxious thought
If you need help, please do not sit alone with anxiety. Reach out to a friend, a pastor, a doctor or a therapist. There is help. I pray that you will remember that you are never alone, and that you can rest and remain in the presence of the Light of the world, draw from His strength and promises to fight and win this battle. Because you are more than a conqueror in this and every situation through Him who loves you!
Living in the Light of the world 