Hi all,
I used to carry all my fear and worry right through my prayer. At times, the main reason for going to Wednesday night church was to remind the Father I had bills due that I was counting on Him to provide.
Fear and worry in prayer
Years ago when our 3 boys were young and money was especially tight, I would pray about a bill coming due and found myself as worried and afraid at the end of the prayer as I was at the start of the prayer.
My prayer was along the lines of Philippians 4: 6-7:
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.
I knew the Greek word ‘guard’ meant to guard like a city wall, to hem in, to stand watch over. But I had no peace at the end of the prayer and wondered why what Paul promised wasn’t happening to me.
One day I looked at that verse as a step by step process,
Starting with: “Be anxious for nothing.” The Greek word ‘anxious’ is ‘merimnao’ and means ‘to be pulled apart in different directions’, ‘divided, distracted’. That was me – thoughts running all over the place in fear and worry about what would happen if the bill didn’t get paid. I was trying to figure out a Plan B & C if ‘God didn’t come through.’
I decided to take it as ‘step 1’, ‘step 2’ and so on. The first thing he said was to stop being anxious and in fear and worry. It took me 2 weeks to work through the fear and worry. I began actively rejecting thoughts of ‘what if’ and other fears, replacing them with specific examples from my past where the Father ‘came through’ for us.
It 2 weeks to deal with the fear. I had many things I prayed about daily, but that one bill, the rent, that was coming up in 2 1/2 weeks, I didn’t pray about. I kept that to myself until I had dealt with the fear. I battled for 2 weeks countering every fear with a remembrance of the Father’s faithfulness, sometimes even before I was saved.
Finally, the fear was gone and I could proceed to Paul’s next instruction:
In every situation by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. I did that. I humbly took that rent bill to Him, stating how faithful He had been in the past, and thanking Him for continued faithfulness….and then it happened. That message from heaven, that rainbow to my spirit – PEACE!
It happened just like Paul. The peace from the Father came and I knew that I knew that I knew that rent was paid – How, I didn’t know. But I had peace it was paid.
I have followed Paul’s instructions just like that since. But now it doesn’t take me 2 weeks to work through the fear, I can deal with it in a matter of seconds, or less than a second – the more you learn to deal with fear, the easier the next time becomes, and soon it isn’t a battle at all.
I have learned the word ‘guard’ as in ‘the peace of God will guard your hearts and minds’ is both offensive and defensive in such cases. When a thought of fear or worry starts to come against the peace I have, it is like an attack against a castle wall. Or like a wall around an ancient city. Peace stands guard, and I keep the gates closed by refusing to take the bait of thinking about that fear.
If you refuse to fear, it is like refusing to open the gate
It is refusing to let the draw bridge down. Refuse the thoughts of fear and worry. It takes discipline and training, and is difficult at first, but soon becomes natural.
Peace becomes an offensive weapon when you once again fight that fear and worry with a statement – out loud so you can hear yourself say it – about the Father’s faithfulness in the past. Peace overwhelms fear and worries when you do that.
Jesus said in Matthew 6: 34 ‘take no thought therefore about tomorrow’.
“Take no thought.” Thoughts come – but don’t take them. He had just finished telling the faithful that Gentiles, those outside the covenant we have with the Father, worry about their food and clothing. Jesus said our Father knows what we need – He is OUR Father, He is not THEIR Father. Therefore ‘Take no thought’ about these things.
That is how you do it – when the thought comes you don’t take it, you meet that thought with the peace pushing back from the walled city of your heart and mind, and reject any thoughts contrary to peace. It is that simple, but it is a discipline and at least for me, difficult at first. But stay with it and it will become your first response.
Peace is one of the fruits of the spirit of Galatians 5: 22-23
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things, there is no law.
I believe Paul’s intent was the fruit of the human spirit, not the fruit of the Holy Spirit. The reason is simple: The context is comparing works of the human flesh against the fruit of the born again spirit.
The Spirit of God is love, joy, peace, and such. Fruit is a product of the tree. The tree is an apple tree, the apple is the fruit. The Holy Spirit IS love, joy, peace and such. The fruit He produces in our spirit is meant for others to consume.
The fruit of a tree is the means of reproducing that tree, so we are to reproduce disciples. That is our fruit which is seen in our lives. People eat fruit. It provides nourishment. It tastes good. People want it.
Peace is a fruit of the born again spirit. People want the peace you have. They want the fruit of your life – they see the fruit of love, joy, peace, gentleness, long suffering, patience, kindness – and they want it in their lives.
Walk in peace. Learn to guard it, and when necessary, use peace as a weapon against the darts of the enemy, or to help a person get out of strife or fear or worry…..
New subject next week, until then, blessings,
John Fenn
