Is it just me or does this seem like an impossible ask? Do not be anxious... about ANYTHING? Nothing at all? How can you even do that? In my humble opinion, I think that it’s less about not having worrying thoughts and more about not allowing those thoughts to dominate our thinking and our actions.
And Paul seems to give us a way to do just that: Prayer, Petition & Thanksgiving.
Prayer & Petition
Prayer is a habit that we all need to continue to work on. Being intentional about creating space to spend time with our God to speak with Him and to allow Him to speak with us. The building and cultivating of a close relationship with our heavenly Father to learn more about who He is and what he says. And the wonderful thing is we can talk to Him anytime and anywhere about anything. That's petition, the making of a formal request (to an authority -God) with respect to a cause. When the anxiety is peaking or even starting to rare its head, wherever we are, we can just give it to God. “Here God take this. I don’t need it, I don’t want it. It’s not helpful for me and it’s not something you want me to carry.” Praying scriptures that remind us of how faithful God is (1 Corinthians 1:9), that we can cast our cares on Him (1 Peters 5:7) and that he never leaves us (Deuteronomy 31:6) will help us to create the pattern of giving our anxiety to God. And the wonderful thing is there is no limit on the number of times we can pray so there is no limit on the number of times we can petition God!
Thanksgiving
This is the action of taking our eyes off of the thing or things causing us anxiety and putting them on God. Being intentional about spending with God is a gateway to thanksgiving, because we are reminded, as we pray and read scripture, of who God is. The Bible says nothing is impossible for Him (Luke 1:37). Nothing. There isn’t anything that can occur in our lives that God cannot and will not work for our good. So even though the fire may be hot, God has us safe and secure and promises to work it out for our good. So can we praise and thank him in the midst of the difficult circumstances because our God has already made a way. This allows us the ability to praise even while in the midst of trials because our eyes aren’t on what’s happening our eyes are on the God who controls all of it.
It’s not easy, however, but the more time we spend praying, petitioning and thanking God, the less room we will have for anxious thoughts.
by Kalesha Peters
