Let Your Requests Be Known Unto God
We have to do what Paul instructed in the following scripture:
Phil. 4:6 ... Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
The first step is to turn to God with the trouble area and pray. Let your requests in the matter be made known unto God. What would you like God to do in your behalf?
Phil. 4:7 ... 7And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
When we fail to deal in a spiritual way with negative thoughts, we may end up "forsaking our own mercy."
Job. 2:8 ... They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.
Example: Recently I wrote something as a teaching example. It was something that happened with another person. Although I have no reason to think this person would ever read anything I would write, still there was a fearful thought. "What if he sees this. He might be angry that I wrote this." (Although I did not use his name, he would know it was what he did.)
Immediately I began praying. I asked God not to let this hurt this man in any way. It was not written to hurt anyone but rather to give the church an example of how things can go wrong if you follow the wrong spirit which I'm persuaded this man had done in this case.
James 4:7 ... Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
We submit ourselves to God in prayer as we take the problem to God.
If we are reminded of a scripture after prayer, we "stand" on that scripture, building our faith on that scripture, thereby resisting the devil with the word God has given us in the matter after we pray. And we have the promise that the devil will flee from us.
Often after prayer when we are reminded of a scripture to help us, we can just sit and think about that scripture and what it is saying to us. Thus we "fill our house" with that scripture by thinking on that scripture.
Devils will not want to move into our house when it is being kept filled with the word of God.
Mt. 12 ... 43 When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. 44 Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. 45 Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there:and the last state of that man is worse than the first.
Many of the destructive thoughts that come to us are from spirits of the devil. And those spirits will bring thoughts which are opposite to God, thus the thoughts are "anti" Christ, opposite to the Word of God.
Paul explains: For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: 4(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) 5Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; II Cor. 10
When something troubles people of the world they use fleshly ways to deal with the trouble. Some clean out closets. Some go shopping. Some pick up a phone and share their troubles with another person. These people "war after the flesh".
But our weapons are "mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds." Brick by brick, as we pray over the situation, and as we focus on scripture given us by the Holy Spirit, we remove that wall that has been built over the years by this type of problem.
"Casting down imaginations" ... Haven't we often been troubled over nothing? Sometimes these imaginations can eat up our lives and cause us to be in a type of paralyses. But we have a secure weapon if we will use it. When we belong to God we have access to the power of God which never fails.
All we have to do is turn to God in prayer and pour out our hearts to God in prayer.
And Paul says when we do this, the peace of God which passes all understanding will keep our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. We place our faith in what God gives us on the matter at hand, what God calls to our mind after we pray.
Sometimes I can even feel the weight lift from my shoulders after I pray when I have been troubled over something.
And there are many "high sounding thoughts" that come exalting themselves against the knowledge we have of God. These are "anti-Christ" ... opposite to the word of God. Nevertheless these are troubling thoughts and must be dealt with through prayer.
Our first way of escape is to STOP ... AND PRAY ...as soon as we realize we are troubled or feeling a little "down".
Sometimes we remember to pray over the "big" things ... but ignore the "little" things ...
Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes. Song of Solomon 2:15
It is important to take those little things that trouble us to God also.
in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. Phil. 4:6
When we fall asleep and let the troubles pile up without prayer, we put ourselves in danger.
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: 9Whom resist stedfast in the faith, I Peter 5
One of the aspects of "pure religion" in the sight of God is to keep ourselves unspotted from the world.
James 1:27 ...Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit (judge) the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
This is all a part of taking thoughts captive to bring them into obedience of God.
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