10⎪JULY 2022⎪shop . cmausa . org |
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INFORMATION is com ing at us faster than we can process it . With social and news media mixed in with our everyday life , our minds are full of information that we think about . As we interact with this news , it provokes feelings , some of happiness and some of anger . Our mood and outlook on life change depending on what we dwell on . We can become bitter and hostile or happy and helpful , all based on the information we choose to dwell on . Unfortunately , most of the information coming at us is of bad report . Corrupt governments , who is doing who wrong , and local gossip can fill our minds and emotions . Where are we to turn to be purveyors of hope as the Bible talks about when all around us is hopeless ?
The Word of God gives us a few scriptures lined out in Philippians 4:6-9 , NLT .
“ Don ' t worry about anything ; instead , pray about everything . Tell God what you need , and thank him for all he has done . Then you will experience God ' s peace , which exceeds anything we can understand . His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus . And now , dear brothers and sisters , one final thing . Fix your thoughts on what is true , and honorable , and right , and pure , and lovely , and admirable . Think about
things that are excellent and worthy of praise . Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me — everything you heard from me and saw me doing . Then the God of peace will be with you .”
The first thing for us to do is to pray for the things that concern us , which is opposed to telling everyone all about it . God has promised us that if we leave the worrying up to Him and take up praying instead , we can walk in His supernatural peace . The peace will guard our hearts against turning negative and keep our minds stilled so we can be productive in our life . Not just productive in ministry but also at work and in our families . You cannot see clearly when your mind is in a state of stress , nor can you respond correctly . So turning to prayer is a powerful way to live this life we have been given .
Once we start this process , we see there are things we should be thinking about , and verse 8 gives us a nice list . When we take our thoughts captive , we should cast them out if they do not align with Scripture . This brings us to a difficult place to live and shows us the depravity of our minds . If we haven ' t been taking our thoughts captive , when we try to live in this verse , we may be shocked at how out of line our thoughts have gotten . If our thoughts are out of line , you can be certain that our actions are out of line . The first line of defense your flesh will throw out is that this is impossible , and we live in a real-world with real problems . That is a true statement without the action of what we are supposed to do about these real problems . It ' s not as if the problems negate following the Word of God . No , contrary to that , we are to follow it even more . If there are real problems , that is even more reason to begin to pray about them and submit them to God , as verse 6 tells us .
When we begin to pray about the problems , we introduce God into the situation , and that starts us down a path that produces faith , which we must have to please God . Yes , we have problems . Yes , the world is in a place of confusion . No , we don ' t have to be consumed by it . We can and should begin to pray about it and fix our minds on things worthy of praise . If you find yourself in such a place where you can ' t think of anything worthy of praise , begin to praise God , for He is worthy .
I have not brought you a word that is easy and implemented without effort . It ' s a hard word that will require minute-by-minute work . It ' s not the way of the flesh , so it ' s hard , but it is the way of the Spirit , so it ' s productive . I challenge you to begin this spiritual work today . It will be hard , and you may feel like you are failing more than succeeding . Remember that you are doing so much better than you were . It just makes you aware of where you really are , which is the Word ' s work . It causes us to look into it and see ourselves as we are like looking into a mirror .
Know that as you work this into your life , the reward is the peace of God as we pray about our worries .
( continue on page 11 )