Josh’s Thoughts

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, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
(Php 4:6-9 NASB)

Let me recap, for the final time, the four steps that Dr. Habermas gave for dealing with emotional pain or, as I am phrasing it, facing the unknown:

1. Pray (verse 6)
2. Give thanks and praise (verses 6 &
3. Change our thoughts (verse
4. Practice, practice, practice (verse 9)

In this final post I am dealing with the subject of practice, and then I will conclude the post and the series with some suggested Scriptures for further reading, along with a practical tip for dealing with worry.

The subject of practicing the three steps that I have already written about seems quite simple, right? You just practice! Nothing to it!

Well, in a way that is certainly true, but there is one very important point that I want to bring up about practicing these three steps. That point is as follows: When you have prayed about a situation, given thanksgiving to God, and changed your thoughts by locating the lies and replacing them with truth, then leave the situation with God!

Here’s what I mean: All too often (as Dr. Habermas pointed out in his lectures) we have a tendency to pray about a worry, a doubt, or a fear, and then continue to pray about the worry, doubt, or fear. And we continue to do it…and continue…and continue…all day, every day, until the situation is resolved. What happens when we do this is that our prayer and thanksgiving becomes a form of worry in itself. In other words, we’re still worrying about the situation–we’re still holding onto it. The only difference is that we’re talking to God and telling Him how much we’re worried about it!

The solution that I have found to this problem is to bring the situation that I am worrying about to God on a daily basis and then leave it there! I bring it to Him in prayer, I share my fears with Him, I thank Him for His promises and for the knowledge that He will work everything out for the best, and then I leave the situation with God. I cannot stress this point enough! A person will never find “the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension” if they are unwilling to let go of their worries and leave them at the feet of Jesus.

After all, isn’t God powerful enough to remember our petitions without us reminding Him of them every 30 seconds?

I do not mean to say that God minds us constantly praying, of course! He has all the time in eternity! But when we learn how to trust the situation to God and to leave it at His feet then we can truly begin to experience peace. When we leave the situations that we worry about with Him then we can rest assured that the most qualified Person in the Universe is dealing with the problem, and that He is going to deal with it in a way that is the best for us that it could possibly be! Of course, this does not mean that He will necessarily handle it the way that we in our finite, time-limited understanding would like Him to, but that’s where trust comes in!

Trust that He knows what is best for us.

Trust that He will work everything out for our good. Everything.

And that, in a nutshell, concludes this series on facing the unknown. Pray, give thanksgiving, change our thoughts, and practice leaving our worries, doubts, and fears at the feet of Jesus.

Before I conclude this post, though, I would like to give a practical tip for dealing with worry. I recommend making a list of Scriptures that speak about trusting God and to keep them on your person or accessible to you at all times. I keep a list on my computer and on my PDA, and whenever I start to worry I can read through those Scriptures and it helps me remember to trust God. If you would like my list of Scriptures then e-mail me at jmspiers@gmail.com and I will be happy to send them to you. I might make a 7th post in this series that includes the Scriptures in my list, but I have not decided yet.

Finally, I would like to give some Scripture references that I recommend reading if you are dealing with worry, doubt, or fear. These Scriptures are not from my list, they are from a list given by Dr. Habermas. They are very powerful, and I suggest spending some time meditating on them:

• Ps. 42:5–6 , 11, 43:5, 143:4–6
• Ps. 39:2, 55:4–8, 16–17, 56:3–4, 57:1–3, 94:19; Prov. 12:25, 15:15b
• Lam. 3:19–26 (one of my favorites!)
• 1 Pet. 5:7–9; Ps. 55:22
• Js. 4:7–10

And that, my friends, concludes this series on facing the unknown. It is my sincere hope and prayer that this series of posts will help people in the same way these steps helped me when Dr. Habermas taught them. If anyone who reads this has any questions or just needs someone to pray for them then please email me at jmspiers@gmail.com and I will add you to my prayer list! I firmly believe in the power of prayer, and it is something that I take very seriously. May God bless you today, and may He give you the strength that you need to pray, give thanksgiving, and change your thoughts no matter what you are facing!