Do not be anxious

~Tuesday Thoughts~ 

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. Philippians 4:6-7 (NIV)

"Do not be anxious" can be so hard to do at times. I mean, worry is one of the things we do best, right? There's an almost endless supply of things to be worried over. Stuff like "Where do I want to go to college and why don't I know yet?" "Why am I sixteen and not working? Shouldn't everyone?" "Why does my family fight so much?" etc., etc., etc.

Philippians 4:6 says to "present your requests to God". Sometime's it hard to let go. To say "here, God, take it". But it's possible: 

I can do all this through him who gives me strength. Philippians 4:13 (NIV)

I find the "with thanksgiving" part of verse six pretty interesting. Really? Giving thanks? But, seriously, I'm pretty sure everyone has at least one or two things God has given them that they can be thankful for. We may take them for granted or maybe they're really hard to find, but I think they're there. 

So let's say we did all that. We let go of our worries and with thanksgiving asked God to take care of it. He has to make everything go away, right? Not really. He CAN, that's for sure. But He doesn't promise He'll turn the situation around to how you want it to look. Verse seven says:

"And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

I know it's hard when the answer is "no" or "later", when some stuff seems to be working specifically against you. But God has it under control and you can actually feel PEACE. His peace. 

By the way, here are two blog posts by Nancy Rue on her blog In Real Life that talk about similar stuff: "Ready For It To Be Okay" and "Lather, Rinse, Repeat". 

How about you? Do you struggle with this kind of stuff? How has God helped you in the past?