“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 4:6,7
One of the speakers at the Women of Faith pre-conference was Jan Silvious. She is often referred to as a female Dr. Phil, except that all of her counsel and teaching comes from her knowledge of God and His Word. Her depth of knowledge and wisdom is evident in her messages.
One of the things she spoke about at WOF really struck me. She started by reading Philippians 4:6,7 (which incidentally I have tattooed on my shoulder…see the above photo...by the way, it's very hard to take a picture of your own tattoo when it's on the back of your shoulder. I have also claimed this passage as some of my life verses). Have you ever wondered why God threw in the “with thanksgiving” part? Well, Jan has a very interesting answer to that question.
Psychologists have been using fear therapy for a while now. Fear therapy is where they take someone who is really afraid of something and they expose them to an intense experience of that fear. For example, if someone is deathly afraid of snakes, they will basically put a snake in the person’s face to expose them to their fear. There are many methods and variations of how they implement fear therapy. However, in recent years they have discovered that once they’ve exposed a patient to their fear, in this case the snake, and then remove the fear and tell the patient to think of things they are thankful for, the fear immediately recedes and the patient returns to a peaceful state of mind. The reason for this is that the brain produces certain chemicals for both the emotions of fear and of thankfulness. Those two chemicals cannot reside in the brain together. So, if someone is afraid, a chemical is released into the brain. Then when they think of things they are thankful for, a different chemical is released and it basically cancels out the fear chemical because the two cannot coexist. It’s physically impossible to be fearful and thankful at the same time!
Isn’t that amazing?! Ok, but here’s an even cooler part…God already told us that long before “science” ever discovered or proved it. Look at Philippians 4:6,7 again:
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
For someone like me who has been medically diagnosed with anxiety issues, this is a major thing to grasp. I LOVE this passage of Scripture. In the past when I’ve thought about Philippians 4:6,7, I’ve always just prayed that God would remove my anxiety. But now I know that He’s actually provided a WAY to remove my anxiety…be thankful! Isn’t our God the coolest?!
So THANK YOU for reading my blog...get it? I'm being thankful...
No comments:
Post a Comment