When Your Circumstances Make You Anxious: Part 4 — A ‘Time With God’ Audio Devotion

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Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, 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.

Philippians 4:6-7

Transcript

Good morning. I hope your week is going well and that today will be a part of that.

Our weeks don’t always go well, and sometimes our circumstances make us anxious, don’t they? Even those times can be beautiful times as we learn to bring those situations to God and trust Him and see Him getting involved in our anxious circumstances, both changing the outcomes but also changing us as we face those circumstances together with Him, trusting in Him.

And we find that even if the circumstance remains stressful, our hearts can be at peace because God is walking through those circumstances with us. Well, this is what we’ve been looking at all this week – how to respond to circumstances that make you anxious. And we’ve been looking at these two verses in Philippians chapter 4, where Paul says, do not be anxious about anything. But in every situation, 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.

So there’s this idea that we don’t try to live lives on our own. We were never designed that way. God designed us as human beings to be in a relationship with Him where He is involved in our lives. And if we try to live life without God, pushing him away, saying, I want to be the centre of my life, God, I want to be able to call on you when it’s convenient, but that’s usually on Sunday or on the weekend, but in most of my life, I’m just going to live it on my own. If we live life that way, we’re missing out on how God designed life to be.

And life can be lonely and full of anxiety when it all depends on us.

And many of us, even who are Christians and have this relationship with Jesus and can live life as if God were totally involved in every aspect, we still leave Him out and we don’t spend time with Him in prayer. We don’t bring the issues of our day to Him. We just try to live life on our own strength, and what a mistake that is. And probably as you consider your life right now, there are circumstances that are making you anxious. Well, here’s what God says. Don’t be anxious about anything, right?

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And as we bring things to him, he says the peace of God, which transcends all understanding. For someone else who doesn’t know God, it’s going to seem totally ridiculous that you could be at peace in the kinds of circumstances that you’re facing. And as you learn the lessons about trusting God in every circumstance, and you find peace in your life, even when you’ve gotten bad news from the doctor, even when you’re facing difficulties with your children or financial problems, and people look at you and they say, how can you have such peace? It doesn’t make sense. I’d be freaking out.

Well, that’s the life lived with God at the centre of it. It’s a peace that transcends all understanding. And maybe you would say, ‘Well, man, that sounds awesome to me. I would love to have that kind of peace in my circumstances.’

Here’s what you need to know – the peace of God in every circumstance – that kind of life starts with finding peace with God.

Because there’s a problem in our relationship with God, isn’t there? We’ve pushed Him away so many times. We’ve done so many things we know are not pleasing to Him, and sometimes we even feel like, how can I even come to God? I know He doesn’t want to see me. I’ve offended Him so much, broken so many of his moral laws in my heart and mind.

Well, yes, all of that is there, and it puts a barrier between you and God, but that’s why Jesus came into the world.

He came into the world to live as a man, as one of us, so he could represent us before God the Father and take all the frustration, the anger, the judgement that we deserve from God. He could take it when He died on the cross in our place so that we can find forgiveness and begin a beautiful relationship with God.

If the guilt you feel has been holding you back from coming to God, just thank God for what He did for you when Jesus came and died on the cross. Accept His forgiveness and then start allowing Him to be a part of everything you do in your life. That’s when the peace of God will flow into you. But first you have to get right with God.

I’m John North.

To go deeper in your faith, visit AFCI.com.au.

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