6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.+ 7Then 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.
Philippians 4:6-7
In this time of turmoil we may not think peace can be found. I have been asked to give personal examples of how prayer has been effective in my life.
We have not taken the easy road in life choosing to start a business from scratch rather than be employees. And we did it 4 different times. We had no help from family or friends. No matter what they what tell you there are no atheists in fox holes and small business owners pray without ceasing. As a small business owner you wake up every day unemployed.
There is a reason why Jesus chose fishermen as his first apostles. They understood that they had to throw their nets out into the murky sea and expect them to come up with fish. They knew something about faith.
Not looking at prayer like a wish from genie bottle but Paul did say pray about everything. Many small business owners may or may not attend church but they pray. Everything about owning a small business is impossible. The only thing you have is faith.
5 If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. 6 But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. 7 Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.
James 1 :5-8
I cannot say that God always answers my prayers and gives me what I want. I can say that He gives me peace about what I’m praying about. Sometimes He makes my issue simply not an issue any more. The thing doesn’t disappear. In fact it may get even bigger but after giving it to God in prayer somehow it no longer matters as much. Then it never matters. In reminding me that my loyalty needs to be seeking Him rather than the world, he shows me that my faith in Him is all that matters and my concerns of the world pass away.
These are areas that are not often written about because they are so esoteric and hard to describe but prayer keeps me functional daily.
I have been told all my life that I was too emotional. Now in my 50s I no longer apologize for my passion. God made me this way. He does everything on purpose. When I take my passion to God in prayer he calms my heart and soul and reminds me that all that “emotion”, passion, I have is love. Love springs from the eternal well of life, which is God himself. God is love.
I cannot say that God answers all my prayers. I am extremely glad that he has not granted a great many of them. What I can say is that when I committed to praying every morning and made it a habit. That was the day I truly started to live. I have been able to handle whatever came my way. My health improved 100%. Over the first year I overcame chronic migraine headaches without medication. If you have chronic pain or migraine headaches in particular you will find how I overcame them on a blog post I published in 2014:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/5338646728673367554/6045415339576789813
My marriage got better. Our finances got took care of themselves. Relationships with my extended family improved. I have been able to do things I never thought I could do. I faint at the sight of blood yet I was able to care for a friend in her last stages of breast cancer.
The most important thing is that prayer keeps what the existentialist call pain of existence from polluting our minds. Because of prayer we receive peace. This peace is promised to each of us. Although it may be selfish or self-centered, finding personal peace is a good reason to pray. Prayer is the only way to reach it. This peace makes it possible for us to truly see the beauty around us and the goodness in our fellow man. This is the peace we are promised that will guard our hearts and minds.
4 What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? 2 You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. 3 And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.
James 4:1-3
James, the brother of Jesus, did not mince words. I really wanted to splice out the part that pertained to asking for what you want. But the whole passage kept coming to my attention over several days so I decided to include the whole section. During this perilous time in our Nation’s history, it seems like everyone is “causing quarrels and fights”. Maybe times don’t change that much. Here we are still quarreling and fighting motivated by selfish ambitions over 2000 years later.
It all boils down to the same theme: to pray with God in mind as our end goal and not focus too much on the world. Prayer is truly the path to peace of mind or whatever you may desire. But beware, you may start out praying for something but end up with peace and caring only about loving your neighbor.
