When in Doubt, Pray! || Being Pulled Apart || Week 4 (FINALE!)

Welcome back to our “Being Pulled Apart” series! We’re looking at four stories in scripture that talk about being anxious or the Greek word merimnaó. Through the word study we did on this Greek word, we were able to understand being anxious as the following: Being anxious (merimnaó) means to have our worries, concerns, and anxieties (merimna) pulled apart (merizó) into many different directions (meros). If you missed the word study portion, read this series’s first blog because it was awesome!

Last week, we talked about the different gifts the Spirit gives us and how God created each of us with these gifts. We also discussed ways the community we’re involved with should help, honor, and love us with our gifts.

This week, we will discuss a familiar scripture that comes up when discussing anxiety. We’ll talk about Paul’s advice to pray when we worry. Then we’ll discuss how God’s peace is greater than anything else for our anxiety. Let’s read the story from the New Living Translation. Remember, the bold verses in our scripture are where we find the phrase “being anxious.” Philippians 4:4-7 says this: 

4 Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again – rejoice! 

5 Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do. Remember, the Lord is coming soon. 

6 Don’t worry about anything; instead pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 

7 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. 

Let’s talk about verse four before we get into things because it’s fascinating when talking about anxiety. Paul is telling his audience to rejoice in the Lord, and it’s so important to him that he repeats it. The NLT doesn’t say it as we typically hear it, but it still has the same meaning. What does it mean, though?

Rejoice is the Greek word chairó (khah’-ee-ro), which means to rejoice or be glad. A deeper understanding of “rejoice” is to delight in God’s grace or, literally, to experience God’s grace. The interesting thing about this word is that it’s related to two other Greek words. They are linked together. These words all share the same fundamental meaning. What two words are they? Joy and Grace.  

Joy is the Greek word chara (khar-ah’), which means joy or delight. It means to be aware of God’s grace, favor, and joy. The root “char” means to extend favor, lean towards, or be favorably disposed of. Therefore, it means to lean toward God’s grace, favor, and joy. If we link that definition of “joy” with what we understand about “rejoice,” we can understand it as delighting in the ability to lean into God’s grace, favor, and joy. Hang on to that because I’ll get back to this understanding after discussing grace. 

Grace is the Greek word charis (khar’-ece), which means grace or kind. This word has four usages: grace, viewed as a gift/blessing brought by Jesus; favor; gratitude; kindness. This version of grace that Paul is using here is focused on God’s favor. The same root for this word appears in the word “chara,” which we understand as leaning towards something. This type of grace is understood as God giving himself away to people. Putting it all together means to lean into God’s kindness. Suppose we combine it with what we understand about rejoicing. In that case, it means to delight in our ability to lean into God’s kindness, for he gives it to us freely. 

Now let’s put it ALL together, to rejoice means to delight in our ability to lean into God’s kindness, favor, and joy because he freely gives it to us. Going to God with our worries is something that we can do because God sent his son to die for our sins. This act allowed Jesus to tear the temple curtain and remove the barriers for us to go directly to God. People used to have to talk with their pastor, who would then talk to God. What Jesus did was remove the middleman. This was so important to Paul that he told the church to rejoice twice. Before we go to God with our worries, let’s reflect on the fact that we can go directly to God because it wasn’t always like this. I share this with you because this is the attitude we must carry when discussing verses 6 and 7. Let’s do that now. 

What is Paul’s advice when we worry? Don’t. We should instead pray about all of our worries. When we pray, we share our needs and worries with him and thank God for everything he’s done for us. When we worry, let’s stop and pray. Take that intentional time to hear what God has to say to you. In all that, thank him for all the good that he’s done for you. If you’re struggling with what to thank God for, think simple. Thank him for your breath. Thank him for waking up. Thank him for a new day. These are simple things for us to share our gratitude to God for. How do we listen to God? 

Well…I can’t give you a simple answer. Why? I struggle with this tenfold. My prayer life is inconsistent, so sharing this with you feels hypocritical. When I pray, I often don’t take the time to listen. I’ll share my worries and thanks and expound about it, but I stop once I get it all out. I’ll close my prayer and go on with my day. I find it hard to discern God’s voice when I stop and listen. With my own anxiety, my mind is always racing, and my thoughts are always happening. So figuring out what’s an anxious thought versus what is a godly thought is difficult for me. Because it’s difficult, I often don’t wrestle with my thoughts because it’ll either lead me to overthink things or spiral down the wrong thought pattern. Yet, as I share this with you, a couple of verses came to mind. 

Isaiah 55:8-9 says this: 

8 “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.

9 For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.

Proverbs 3:5 says this:

5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. 

What does it mean for God’s thoughts to be “higher” than mine? It’s the Hebrew word gabahh (gaw-bah’), which means to exalt. According to Merriam-Webster, to exalt means to elevate by praise. So, God’s thoughts are elevated by our praise over anything we think. Confused? Me too. Yet, let’s connect this to what I talked about in Philippians 4:4. We described rejoicing as delighting in our ability to lean into God’s kindness, favor, and joy because he freely gives it to us. It means intentionally wrestling with those thoughts regardless of whether we want to. When we are confused or uncomfortable with a thought running through our mind, it’s remembering that we have a God we can lean on to ask, “Is this from you?”

God is a good god who doesn’t cause bad things to happen, so bad thoughts overall wouldn’t be from God. It’s an easy black-and-white case. Yet, what happens with those thoughts that we know are good long-term and uncomfortable short-term. Because there’s the feeling of uncomfortableness, we think they’re wrong, and we would assume that it’s not from God. Yet, God sometimes pushes us out of our comfort zone to do what he’s called us to do for the Kingdom of God. So a thought that makes us uncomfortable can come from God. What do we do with that? Well, we lift those thoughts up to God, wrestle with them, and if we believe they indeed came from God, we trust in them. Proverbs 3:5 tells us to trust God with all our being and not depend on what we understand. That thought that we’re uncomfortable with and may not fully understand at first is a promise that God will use to change our life trajectory. It’s lifting that thought to God, exalting it, and fully trusting in it. 

So, let’s ask God. Let’s share with God all our worries, anxieties, and needs. Let’s share everything we’re thankful for. Let’s share it all with God. Hear God out. Have a conservation with him. And, when we get an answer, trust God with it all. If we do all that, we get what verse 7 talks about.

True peace isn’t the following: positive thoughts, no conflict, or overall good feelings. It’s what we push today, but it can lead to “toxic positivity.” It’s something that I’ve been a victim of pushing and receiving. Toxic positivity is dysfunctional emotional management without the full acknowledgment of negative emotions. It’s the “pressure to stay upbeat no matter how dire one’s circumstance is.” It happens when people believe that negative thoughts about anything should be avoided. True peace isn’t just avoiding anything negative. True peace is trusting that God will work everything out best for you. We need to let God’s peace guard our hearts against anxiety. The anxiousness often breaks our spirit and takes our focus off of God’s plan for us. We’ll get a peaceful perspective on everything if we trust God. Jesus said this about his peace in John 14:27:

27 “I am leaving you with a gift – peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.” 

True peace is peace of mind and heart. We often view peace as the absence of conflict. While it’s accurate, it’s not the whole truth. The peace that Jesus gives is a confident assurance in any circumstance. So, it’s no conflict versus complete confidence. Realistically, I want full confidence. Granted, I would love to have no conflicts. It would remove many stressors, but removing stress doesn’t mean that life will be good. Having complete confidence in Jesus that I can do anything through him is life-changing. It removes doubt, worry, and anxiety and replaces it with hope, trust, and faith. Confidence would let me try driving instead of being heavily anxious about being behind the wheel. Confidence would let me apply for jobs rather than reject myself before my resume is sent in. Confidence would allow me to talk to strangers and build relationships instead of being terrified about how they’ll judge me. This confidence comes from the work of the Holy Spirit. It’s work. Continuous learning, trial and error, and reinforcement allow this confidence to blossom. 

Jesus’s peace removes our need to fear the present and the future. Jesus’s peace can allow us to take things one day at a time and one moment at a time, not allowing the worries of tomorrow to take over our minds today. The serenity prayer is running through my mind as I type this. I’ll share it at the end as the closing prayer for this series. ANYWAY! 

We often live with our sins, fears, uncertainties, doubts, and despair sitting at the front of our minds and feeds. Our inner critic, or at least my inner critic, will constantly chat and yell to get my attention and knock my confidence down. The negative news and the harsh realities of the world sit across our various social media feeds because it gets clicks and views. It’s easy to get sucked into those feeds and allow that to overwhelm our minds. Yet, if we remember God’s peace, we restrain these negative forces and provide comfort in place of conflict. We are tying these negative mindsets up, tossing them away, and replacing them with comfort. Now, this may sound like “toxic positivity” to you. I say that because it did to me, but there’s a difference. Are we dismissing negative emotions in this situation? No, we are replacing them. We’re removing those harmful sources from our feeds, not to ignore them, but to take those and replace them with God’s comfort. Wars that are ongoing lead to “God, heal our land.” Young people dying of drugs and shooting lead to, “God, heal our people.” Switching gears like this allows us to take our worries to God, share our thanks that we might not be affected by this, and it might even spark a movement to help out in these struggling areas. 

Jesus is ready to give us this peace. All we have to do is accept it. Accept that Jesus is going to provide confidence for you in all circumstances. That’s it. When you feel the stress of life, allow the Holy Spirit to fill you with the peace and confidence from Jesus that will overcome all stress. 

I hope you enjoyed this series. This has been my absolute favorite of any series I’ve written. I’m in awe of seeing God’s word flow so smoothly and fluidly from part to part and seeing our talks about mental health and anxiety evolve with each part. There will be a new “Let’s Listen To” next week, and then we’ll start a brand-new series on the Armor of God. God has been working through me in new ways to explain this topic without the war-ladened focus. I’ll see how it works in the process, but I’ve wanted to do it for a long while. Actually, I have a couple of series in my mind upcoming that I can share with you. After the Armor of God, I want to deep-dive into the Tower of Babel story in Genesis 11. Then I’ll switch gears to talk about Luke 6:38 deeper. So, here are the next three series. Then, we might see a rewrite of Jacob’s Family Tree. It’ll depend on where God takes us. Until then, stay blessed.

Serenity Prayer: God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference, living one day at a time; enjoying one moment at a time; taking this world as it is and not as I would have it; trusting that You will make all things right if I surrender to Your will; so that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with You forever in the next. Amen.