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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