The Lord is At Hand

Phil 4:4-6 Rejoice in the Lord always, again I will say rejoice. Let your reasonableness be know to everyone. The Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

I love these verses. Our friend Dale put this scripture to music and the melody goes through my head often. Chris and I have been making some big decisions regarding our future living situation and not surprisingly, due to my sinful patterns, I have gone in and out of anxiety. This scripture and others have helped me. This morning I was re-reading John Piper's chapter Faith in Future Grace vs. Anxiety, in his book Future Grace. I was encouraged to keep fighting the fight of unbelief.

When anxiety strikes and blurs our vision of God's glory and the greatness of the future that he plans for us, this does not mean that we are faithless, or that we will not make it to heaven. It means our faith is being attacked. At first blow, our belief in God's promises may sputter and swerve. But whether we stay on track and make it to the finish line depends on whether, by grace, we set in motion a process of resistance- whether we fight back against the unbelief of anxiety.

A little further down in chapter four of Philippians's, vs19 says, And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Under the promise of "My God will supply all your needs" Piper says,

If we live by faith in this promise of future grace, it will be very hard for anxiety to survive. God's "riches in glory" are inexhaustible. He really means for us not to worry about our future.

I love that, he really means! Cares and anxieties will come and we can by God's grace cast them upon the Lord because he really means for us to trust and look to Him to care for our future!

And finally Matthew 6:27-28 And which of you by being anxious can add a single cubit to his life's span? And why are you anxious about clothing? With this verse Piper comments,

This is a promise of sorts- the simple promise of reality: anxiety will not do you any good. It's not the main argument, but sometimes we just have to get tough with ourselves and say, "Soul, this fretting is absolutely useless. You are not only messing up your own day, but a lot of people's as well. Leave it with God and get on with your work". Anxiety accomplishes nothing worthwhile.

How true that is, anxiety accomplishes nothing worthwhile. It is much better for my soul, my children's sake and those I come in contact with today to trust the Lord, He is at Hand and to be anxious about nothing, rather bringing my cares to him in Prayer for he will meet all of my needs.