{"id":1073,"date":"2020-03-13T16:49:45","date_gmt":"2020-03-13T16:49:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/christianwayfarm.com\/?p=1073"},"modified":"2020-03-14T19:27:54","modified_gmt":"2020-03-14T19:27:54","slug":"thanksgiving-over-fear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianwayfarm.com\/dev\/thanksgiving-over-fear\/","title":{"rendered":"Thanksgiving over Fear"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cDo not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.\u00a0 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0<\/em>(Philippians 4:6-7)<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is one of my all-time favorite verses.\u00a0 And for years I just read it this way:\u00a0 \u201cDon\u2019t be anxious, tell God what you need and the peace of God comes.\u201d \u00a0That seemed so easy and so wonderful.\u00a0 I don\u2019t have to worry because I can just tell God what I need and He takes care of it.\u00a0 And then one day my eyes opened to another part of that verse:\u00a0 \u201cwith thanksgiving.\u201d\u00a0 What???\u00a0 Thank God for the circumstances I am in?\u00a0 How does that happen?\u00a0 I am not happy about my circumstances.\u00a0 I just need God to fix things.<\/p>\n

But then I tried it.\u00a0 I\u2019m not saying thank God for the cancer or the divorce or the loss of a job.\u00a0 The Scripture doesn\u2019t say thank God for the evil in the world or the fear in our heart, but we are to have an attitude of thanksgiving. What if we viewed life like these two little ones, just happy to enjoy a pit of corn and a kitten, without a care in the world!<\/p>\n

This will tell a little about my age, but I remember the images on the TV from Vietnam and the fear that stirred up in a young girl.\u00a0 I remember hearing the stories that caused me to worry at night about the Cold War.\u00a0 I remember 3-mile Island and the fears associated with nuclear fall-out. I remember fall-out shelters everywhere. \u00a0I have a vivid memory of the local story of a cruel murder of an elementary school girl raped and murdered on her way home from school in my hometown.\u00a0 She was just a few years younger than me.\u00a0 I still remember her name and still remember lying awake in bed at night trembling in fear that I might be the next victim. I remember staying in a hotel in New York City on a work trip and watching the news about the local \u201cHotel Ax Murderer.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0I remember being told my twin children were being placed on ventilators shortly after birth as their lungs were not fully developed.\u00a0 Fear was so real.\u00a0 The words, \u201cI don\u2019t love you anymore, I want a divorce.\u201d\u00a0 A drought that wipes out a corn crop or a disease that destroys a pumpkin patch. \u00a0My mom\u2019s diagnosis with leukemia.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0The enemy comes in like a thief to steal our hope, to fill us with fear.\u00a0 And now in 2020, a virus, world pandemic.\u00a0 The stock market is unstable; people are losing income and trying to figure out what to do with school children while they work.\u00a0 Here comes the threat of fear once again.<\/p>\n

And today I declare it is only a threat of fear<\/strong>.\u00a0 And the only way the fear will become real is if we let it.\u00a0 But I know the reasons for our fears are real.\u00a0 Many of us might not be afraid of getting the virus.\u00a0 Others have health issues and are gravely concerned.\u00a0 We all experience some kind of fear of the impact\u2014the stores are empty of essentials.\u00a0 We don\u2019t know how we will care for children while we work.\u00a0 We wonder about the products made overseas that might no longer be available.\u00a0 As business owners we are threatened by what will happen to our source of income when everyone stays home.\u00a0 We are afraid of the \u201cwhat if\u2019s\u2026..\u201d\u00a0 But what if\u2026we applied Philippians 4:6 to our circumstances?<\/p>\n

What if we stopped to thank God for Who He is?\u00a0 What if we thanked God for the fact that He already has a solution for this pandemic and economic turmoil?\u00a0 What if we thanked God for the leaders at the World Health Organization and our medical care facilities?\u00a0 What if we thanked God for the opportunity to spend a little more time with our families?\u00a0 What if we thanked God for the opportunity to learn how to better steward our resources?\u00a0 What if we just thanked God for Jesus and the ability to talk to Him in prayer?\u00a0 What if we thanked God for the ability to offer our fears over to Him, trusting that He cares for us?<\/p>\n

I realize that as some of you read this, your circumstances seem overwhelming.\u00a0 You may be so shaken that you can\u2019t focus to pray.\u00a0 Just try saying \u201cthank you Jesus\u201d over and over.\u00a0 Tell a friend who will pray for you that you need their prayers.\u00a0 And don\u2019t give up.\u00a0 Keep thanking God and keep laying your requests before God and wait for His peace.\u00a0 The verse doesn\u2019t say He will necessarily fix the circumstance but He will give you peace.\u00a0 (which is the absence of fear).\u00a0 And He won\u2019t fail you.\u00a0 You will<\/strong> move past this current circumstance.<\/p>\n

And for some of you, Jesus just isn\u2019t real to you.\u00a0 You have never prayed and you don\u2019t know how to pray.\u00a0 But can I tell you, you are real to Him.\u00a0 And you are loved by Him.\u00a0 So maybe just from your heart, say \u201cJesus I need you.\u00a0 Would you make yourself real to me and show me Who You are?\u201d\u00a0 Find an online Bible if you don\u2019t have one and read the book of John.\u00a0 Read it together with your family.\u00a0 And ask Jesus to make Himself real to you.\u00a0 Ask a believing friend to explain their faith to you and what it means to let Jesus into your life.\u00a0 Maybe now is the time for you understand the gift of freedom that He has for you.<\/p>\n

And then, because we care, if you have a real fear or if you want to understand faith in Jesus, would you share your need with us?\u00a0 People often say when they visit the farm that they just feel the peace here.\u00a0 It\u2019s Jesus.\u00a0 He is invited to be here and He provides that peace.\u00a0 We trust Him to care for us and to make a way even in the midst of circumstances that can cause real fear.\u00a0 We may not be able to offer the perfect words of comfort or a solution to your circumstance, but we can pray and we will.\u00a0 And we can thank God for you and for your willingness to reach out and trust Him for the peace that exceeds all understanding.<\/p>\n

God is good and His plans for your life are for good and not for evil.\u00a0 Trust Him.\u00a0 Thank Him.\u00a0 Praise Him.\u00a0 We are praying for you!<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you Jesus for what you have done, what you are doing and what you will do in each of us!\u00a0 We love you.\u00a0 Amen\u201d<\/p>\n

Blessings,<\/p>\n

Janie<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cDo not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.\u00a0 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0(Philippians 4:6-7) This is one of my all-time favorite verses.\u00a0 And for years I just […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1074,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,30,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianwayfarm.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1073"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianwayfarm.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianwayfarm.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianwayfarm.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianwayfarm.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1073"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/christianwayfarm.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1073\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1083,"href":"https:\/\/christianwayfarm.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1073\/revisions\/1083"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianwayfarm.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianwayfarm.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianwayfarm.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianwayfarm.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}