Sighed, Be

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.   And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. — Philippians 4:5b-7

When we hear someone say, "The Lord is at hand", it is often followed by talk about the Second Coming of Christ.  Jesus said He would never leave us.  He says that He is the Vine, and we are the branches.  He says that, if we abide in Him, He abides in us.  That's close.  That's at hand.  It's that kind of "at hand" that Paul is talking about in his letter to the believers at Philippi.  If the Lord is near to us, so close that "in Him we live and move and have our being", if that is our reality and understanding, the implications are powerful, and we are, or should be, free from anxiety.

A co-worker and good friend of mine just IM'ed me a little while ago.  He is one of our database administrators.  I am still making the transition from Sybase to DB2, and some things still cause me problems.  He's the guy I contact if I can't figure something out.  He is at hand via email, phone or instant message. 

If we have problems and trials and quandaries in life, why do we not bring Jesus in on those difficulties? 

Paul makes a guarantee — not that gold will rain from heaven to pay off your mortgage, not that lightning will strike all of your adversaries.  He says that if we will tell our troubles to the Lord, pray and ask for help, admitting, in effect, that the solution is beyond us, our minds will be surrounded and garrisoned by the peace of God, not a peace that necessarily makes sense, rather one that goes beyond the horizon of our understanding.  The road disappears over rise.  The peace of God assures me He is as much in control of the part that I cannot see as He is the part I can see.         

"For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin," says Romans 14:23 — strong words.  This classifies worry and fear right alongside hatred, lust, greed, and envy as being neck-deep in unrighteousness.  (By the way, if you are reading this and haven't figured it out already, I'm just preaching to myself.)  I always think I can figure everything out for myself.  There is no doubt that, in some ways, I'm not a complete idiot — not that being an incomplete idiot is anything to brag about — but I can solve problems sometimes.  I ought to do that.  There's a difference, though, between problem-solving and fretting.  Both might keep you awake, but the latter is driven by and based in fear; the former is a function of confidence or conviction.

The bad thing about the Lord is that He gives people freedom to be stupid.  The good thing about the Lord is that He gives all of us freedom.  I don't want to be a marionette.  I cannot ask for others to be.  Those around us can make our lives in this world more difficult through their bad choices, evil actions, and sinful behavior.  God is not going to stop that.  But what He will do, like the One and Only Grand Master Eleven-Dimensional Chess Player that He is, is make all things work together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.

Tell Him about it.  Prayer in; peace out.