Philippians 4:6-7

6 Don’t worry about anything, but pray and ask God for everything you need, always giving thanks for what you have. 

7 And because you belong to Christ Jesus, God’s peace will stand guard over all your thoughts and feelings. His peace can do this far better than our human minds. 

God’s Guidance through Conversation

This has been one of the core verses that I’ve built my relationship with God on. One that is a foundational verse for this website. One that helped me through my initial diagnosis for my General Anxiety Disorder. It’s been so easy to worry about everything, especially of late. Between work stress and stress through friendships that compounded on itself, it weighed heavy on my heart. To be the one that can handle the workload that I was receiving and to be able to stay on top of 15 to 20 clients and their situations consistently while managing drama that was ongoing between close friends, playing peacemaker while trying to salvage the relationships I had. I felt like I was drowning. I felt like I was suffocating. I felt like I was losing control. This verse was one that I grew up with – yet I never used this verse. 

What do I mean by that? I never once paused to give it to God. I tried to manage it all myself, and I was struggling. I was not sleeping. I was working many days that I was supposed to have off. I was having conversations during work about the situations that were going on amongst my friends. When I was at home, spending time with friends, I was working. There was never a proper work-life balance. I was tired. I was frustrated. I was on-edge. My poor nervous system is still recovering from the approximately two month journey that it was. Alongside prayer, I needed things like therapy, rest, and a community to walk with God. 

If I had paused, and given the situation to God as it was occurring, I’m not sure if I would feel the same weight. Not that God would just magically take away my stressors and all that, but I may not have the weight of the situation be as heavy. God’s peace doesn’t erase the facts, but it can change how I carried them. My prayers would be for the strength and confidence that I am doing my job to the best of my ability and can manage whatever is thrown my way. My prayer would be for peace, justice, and tranquility about the drama amongst my friends. I would have been thankful for being able to do a job I love, and working alongside people that have become a second family for me. I would have been thankful for friends that have accepted me as I am and have walked alongside me through some hard times. That’s what Paul is sharing here: share everything with God. The good and the bad. The helpful and the hurts. All of that is brought to good through gratitude and petitions. Why? For what’s mentioned in verse 7. 

So we can receive peace. Not the peace we know – the absence of chaos. God’s peace brings us tranquility in our chaos. To be able to walk through our chaos without the weight of the stress. We will still feel what we need to feel and everything surrounding that, but we can walk forward knowing we have a God that loves us dearly and wants us to survive in this fallen world. God will gift us peace so that we’re not stuck in the stress, but so we can continue onwards into what God has called us to do. 

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: How has God guided you through stress, anxiety, and/or depression?