Christ Jesus – Me From the Inside Out

based on the Love God Greatly Study, The Armor Of God, w3d2

Scripture: Philippians 4:6-7 (8)

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. ⁷Then 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.
Philippians 4:6-7

God’s message through Paul is: “do not be anxious” about anything. While that may sound like a daunting and impossible instruction to follow we must remember Jesus’ words to His disciples in Matthew 19:26, concerning another impossibility. Matthew wrote, “Jesus looked at them and said, ‘with man this is impossible but with God all things are possible.'” So, yes, ‘anything’ is a really big word but God is a really big God who empowers us to do whatever He has called us to do.

So, how do we do it? Money’s tight and the bills are due – how do you not worry? You or someone you know is facing serious health issues – how are you not going to be anxious? Your children are struggling with school or life – how do you keep the concerns from overpowering you. The list is endless but the bottom line is this – regardless of what scenario we come up with – God is bigger than the problem and He has given us the answer for true and lasting in peace in every situation.

Paul tells the Philippians they are to pray in every situation, bringing their petitions (requests) to God and offering prayers of thanksgiving for what God has already done. gotquestions.org

Prayers, petitions, and thanksgiving

There is a difference between praying and petitioning God and this is important to the mix. To pray is to talk to God. The conversation can and should include more than asking something from God. It is, as Gotquestions.org explains, “the primary way for the believer in Jesus Christ to communicate her emotions and desires with God and to fellowship with Him.” However, to petition God means to make a request from Him, it is a great an awesome gift that we are able to ask anything from God when He has already given us His ALL; but to only always petition God would be to forfeit the best of what God intended our relationship with Him to be.

God saved us from the sins that held us captive but He saved us to a rich and satisfying life(Jn10:10), a life where we would come to Him and find rest for our souls or comfort for our sorrows, refuge in the storms of life and wisdom in the battles and decisions of this life. It is a life that promises a peace that passes all understanding as we live in Christ Jesus. He saved us not just so we would know His love but so that we might love Him and others in return. In regards to love, Jesus told His disciples that when we remain in His love we would not just know joy but we would overflow with joy (John 15:11). When our time and energy are spent on/with God like this – our hearts and minds will be filled with and guarded by His peace.

His peace is more than we can understand
His peace is able to guard our hearts and minds from the anxious thoughts – because we are in Christ

Don’t Worry – Be At Peace

So how do we live this out? Well, it may look different for you than it does for me or the next person but the answer or prescribed method of knowing God’s peace always involves prayer, petition, and thanksgiving. This is not a cavalier method of telling yourself not to worry – or just kick back and relax. This is a- ^1arealize you are anxious or worried about something and ^1brespond by talking to God about what ever it is. ²Thanking Him is next and is a way of letting Him know you trust Him more than you fear the problem or are having anxiety over a situation. Then ³ask Him to help you not worry over “it” and to guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus, just as He promised. It’s about choosing to give and leave the situation in God’s hands knowing He is fully capable of handling the fear or anxiety you are battling. Finally, remember God is true to His word, so you can – and should expect and claim His peace, in Jesus’ name.

Today’s Prayer Response

Father, thank You that Your peace is more than we can understand. Thank You that Your peace is able to guard our hears and minds from the anxious thoughts and the evil one who seeks to steel and kill and destroy. Help us to be alert to the evil one and to turn away from him and to You – for only in You will we know Your peace – Amen and Amen!

Reflection for the Journey

How can we know the peace that passes all understanding?

Going Further

There are several reasons why it is imperative to guard our hearts. First, our hearts have a significant impact on our relationship with God, and the condition of our heart can either draw us closer or push away us away from Him. When we meditate on the Word of God (Psalm 1:2) and allow it to sink into our hearts, we are radically transformed and will experience a greater sense of peace, joy, and contentment (John 10:10; Philippians 4:6–7; Galatians 5:22–23).
On the other hand, allowing sinful influences to take root in our hearts will hinder our relationship with God. We will struggle to pray, read the Bible, and may even feel distant from God. Thus, we must guard our hearts and cultivate a deeper relationship with God.
The second reason why it is imperative to guard our hearts is that the heart impacts our relationship with others. It can draw us closer to others or estrange us from them. For example, if we cultivate an attitude of love, kindness, and compassion toward others (Ephesians 4:32), we will build strong and meaningful connections with them. A heart of patience, understanding, and forgiveness creates a culture of trust and mutual respect (1 Corinthians 12:25–27).Read the full post about Guarding your heart at https://www.gotquestions.org/guard-your-heart.html

Taste and see that the Lord is good.
Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him!
Psalm 34:8

Father, You are good! My mind never doubts this sustaining TRUTH. You are simply and yet profoundly good. My heart rejoices in Your goodness to sustain, to love and teach, and to build up those who now belong to You. In Your goodness You brought us in and have transformed us from strangers and from enemies to members of Your family, not simply or haphazardly brought in but carefully joined together in Christ.

So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family. Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself. We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord. Through him you Gentiles are also being made part of this dwelling where God lives by his Spirit.
Ephesians 2: 19-22

In your goodness You protect and strengthen, You comfort and encourage, and You fill us and guard us with a peace that passes all understanding. Surely, as the Psalmist wrote, You guide us on paths of righteousness for Your namesake. However, I have learned that even when we walk through the valleys that seem dark and lonely and covered with the daunting shadows of sorrow, discouragement, and fear – in Your goodness You are also there. I find You quietly dispelling the shadows with the gentle reminder from your Spirit that we have no cause for fear or discouragement, for in Your goodness You will strengthen us and You will help us. You will hold us up with Your victorious right hand.

Don’t be afraid, for I am with you.
Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you.
I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.
Isaiah 41:10

My mind is riddled with a series of questions that beg to be asked. Why do You love us who were Your enemies? Why have you made us part of Your family and continue to build us up into Your Holy Temple? Why do You lead us and show us the right way to go or dispel the shadows in the valleys? The only answer that comes is this: You are simply and profoundly good! Even if I had not tasted and seen Your goodness for myself – You, proclaimed Yourself to Moses as – “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abounding in goodness and truth”, Exodus 34:6.

Now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abounding in goodness and truth,keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”
Psalm 34:5-7 NKJV

One final question lingers – what is my response? To which I gladly and humbly answer – relying once again on Your goodness … Answer graciously this prayer my God – that I might convey the truth , reality, and depth of Your goodness in my thoughts, both written and spoken, and in my life lived out, so that others might truly know and forever share in Your goodness through Christ Jesus my Lord – Your good and perfect gift of salvation to all who believe.

“For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Romans 6:23

How great is the goodness
you have stored up for those who fear you.
You lavish it on those who come to you for protection,
blessing them before the watching world.
Psalm 31:19 NLT

Want to know more about the goodness of God, salvation through Christ, eternal life, or how to get through the valleys? Reply below or message me at mryelnb@aol.com –

Tag: Christ Jesus

The Answer for True Peace