Philippians 4: 6 – 7
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
I was talking about this verse in the context of healing with my friend Charity who is also a minister (www.glorywaves.org). I exclaimed, “How is this not a health verse?” She responded that of course it is since the majority of our illnesses arise from stress. Stress is a killer and is not how we are supposed to live before God. What we fail to understand is that stress is not an emotion. It is a condition. When we place our bodies under stress, it responds. We are also learning that when we stress ourselves emotionally, whether that just be traffic frustration, getting in a hurry, or really any discomfort or departure from peace, our bodies actually respond. I just was on a call recently where the speaker said that even our cell walls respond to stress as the cells try to protect us.
If you look at this verse again, I think you see the interesting synergy between anxiety and peace. We also need to understand that we are not speaking of clinical anxiety here. This is plain, old, garden variety anxiety. You know that feeling inside of you when you’re running late? It’s that kind of thing and what we are learning is that it is toxic to the body. When we give our anxiety to the Father, He restores us to peace and in that peaceful environment is where our cells get to perform their primary functions.
1 Peter 5: 7 says it so precisely, “Turn all your anxiety over to God because he cares for you.” Father God wants you to cast all your anxiety onto His shoulders because He doesn’t want you to carry those bad feelings and because He knows that they stress your body causing sickness and disease.
However, let’s take this one step further. Throughout this series we have learned that part of our healing is in learning to slow down and hear God speak to us. Okay, when you are under time stress or any other type of stress, you do not hear God as well as when you are in a state of peace. Believe me! I still make this mistake routinely. However, I am learning that when I have lost that peaceful feeling, you know, that kind you get at church when the Holy Spirit is flowing through the sanctuary, when I have lost that good feeling I need to stop whatever I am doing and just take a couple of deep breaths, really deep breaths, the kind that make your abdomen move. Then, in that moment we should redirect our focus. Put our eyes back on Jesus and then ask him to help us with whatever we are working on at the moment. Do that again when you move to the next task. I know for myself that I feel better, am kinder and get more done when I follow this pattern. We are all better, and more effective, when connected to God and we all need the peace which surpasses understanding. It is health to our bones and to our hearts. Give away all your stress to the Father today. Be intentional about abiding in peace. It’s God’s good grace for you.
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