Prayer

So this week I'm reading my daily devotional book that Benay gave me as a present a couple of Christmases ago and the daily verse is this:

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

I have no idea how often I've read these verses but this time it literally blew my mind.

I've always heard these verses in the context of don't worry about anything. That we need to take all of our problems to Him, and these verses talk about that. But it hit me this week how much more powerful these verses are for our everyday lives. That's a big deal for me because I'm not a deep, dig deeper kind of guy, but these things were just obvious to me.

These verses give a detailed plan on how we can have God's peace and, let's be honest, who doesn't want that? From what I read, it isn't anything too difficult. The blueprint reads as follows:

1) Instead of worrying, pray........about everything. Our 5 year old son prays about EVERYTHING. I grew up thinking that it's always cute to hear a 5 year old pray because they pray for bugs and chocolate milk and Sponge Bob. Now I know they are more in tune with God's will. Everything means everything.

2) Tell God what we need. No explanation needed on this one.

3) Thank God for all that He has done. Again, not difficult to understand, but when was the last time you did it?

After doing these things we are given the promise of having God's peace which is far greater than anything we can understand. Who doesn't want that?

Since we've been in Brasil God has put specific people in our lives to remind us that the Bible is full of God's promises. He wants to share these promises with us. I don't believe in the "name and claim it" kind of religion, but I do believe that God wants to bless His kids.

Benay always says when God wants us to know something specifically, He will tell us specifically what we need to do (i.e: build an ark, a temple, how to be saved through faith in Jesus, etc.....he gives us a map) and if He isn't crossing the t's and dotting the i's then He is okay with us studying, discussing and interpreting His word to the best of our ability. I agree. So it seems to me that when he gives us the blueprint to have His peace we would be pretty dumb not to try it and see what happens.

After all God's nature won't allow Him to lie. If He says,"Do these things to have my peace which is too awesome to even understand", I think I'll take Him up on it.

What about you?