If there is one thing that no one wants to be found to be in this day and age it is summed up in one word, “needy”. We live in a culture that values complete self-sufficiency and celebrates heavily individuals who are self-made, “need-no-one to get where they are going” success stories. This shift from cultures past and now ingrained emphasis on individualism in our culture has had a dramatic and devastating impact upon the capacity to form and sustain any sort of “real” community amongst any group of individuals. That is to say that if I rarely exercise any daily practical need of anyone, and my need of them is only a theoretical idea that I am left to implement, due to the fact that I have been taught that I “supposedly” need community, my actual experience of community will appear on the surface to look worthwhile, but the undercurrent will be one of dissatisfaction and feeling left wanting.
Romans 12: 4-5 Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.
This passage in Romans is not a mere suggestion of dependence and need of one another, but an absolute picture of the completely interwoven reality of our need for one another now that “in Christ” we are as one body. It is this deep sense of “belonging to all the others” that seems to be at the root of the tension, and therefore cultivating this lack of experience of us being truly “one body”, of which Christ is the head (Ephesians 5:23). This is most likely due to the undercurrent and subconscious communication that “belonging” really means that your “under possession” of something or someone, rather than “possessing” something or someone. This strikes at the heart of our world’s deep value system that ascribes ownership as the greatest expression of self-sufficiency (and therefore the highest of all its values) and consequently resulting in not being found ”needy” of anyone or anything.
The question this raises then is, what does Paul mean that we truly “belong” to each other? What does this mean in the context of how I understand the cultural climate resulting in the world’s call to me to be striving constantly to be in “possession” of things? In order that we may receive direction for these questions we must approach them as someone who experientially has tasted what Paul meant when he said that we are now those who “have died and our life is now hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3). Paul states as well in Galatians 2:20 that “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
These passages speak to the reality that those who are in Christ are now marked and sealed by the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13-14 you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession-to the praise of His glory), and that the life we now live is not under our control and led by our preference, but is lived in faith that is a byproduct solely of God’s grace. It is only from this place of experiential understanding, due to what has been accomplished on our behalf through Christ by grace, that our allegiance to the cultural value of ownership and possession (control) of our lives can be practically freed and by grace hopefully realigned to the reality that we are apart of a singular body, of which we are apart, that which we do not own, but of which we have been made graciously, a valued part. It debunks the notion and illusion that ownership and possession are what gives me worth and value in this life, and plants firmly the flag of freedom in our hearts to see our value as immovable, solely because by God’s grace, we are apart of His body, we are His children, His heirs.
The illusion is simply this. What gives you value in this world, what proves to those around you that you have succeeded (peoples approval -which is undoubtedly the subconscious measuring tape we all apply), is that through ownership and possession, you have escaped being needy, and therefore have succeeded, because you have achieved what has been valued since the fall of creation, namely control of your life. But ownership and possession are but a false reflection, the illusion of control. It is only went the things that we think we own and possess are threatened, that our lack of control is exposed, and a clear choice is thrust into our path by the Father to either attempt to regain the illusion or step into the gospel reality, the fact that we are not in control, never have been, and never will be.
I saw a bumper sticker once on a carpenter’s truck that said, “borrowing tools is for the weak.” As someone who claims to be a carpenter, I have felt this very pressure exerted at times upon my subconscious. A small voice affirms the bumper sticker, “you are weak if you need to borrow someone else’s tools, you need to have your own stuff, you need to own it, in fact you need to buy two of every tool so you never have to loan out your “personal” tools but have “loaner” tools that “they” can use. Sounds sick huh? But it’s the truth. We are so afraid of being seen as weak, in need, needy, helpless, dependant, that we would even go into massive debt, living in an illusion of self sufficiency, rather than have to face the reality that we can't handle life on our own. Many people live in huge houses, with huge mortgages, with huge car payments, with huge credit-card balances, trying to keep this illusion alive.
It’s odd that we find ourselves surprised when we live like this in our day-to-day lives that we then we wonder why we don’t “feel” more in community with the people who we go to church with, live next to, and work with. Unless there is a recapturing of a healthy dependence upon one another (which is not a modern understanding/experience of neediness) and a biblical understanding of our “belonging” to one another, we will continue to live out vain attempts to foster true community.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Monday, May 12, 2008
“The emergency room is full of people doing something only every once and awhile.”-George Landolt
Matthew 6:11- “Give us today our daily bread”
While speaking with my friend George the other day about my feeling old and worn out after a day of physically demanding work building a stone wall, he said this to me, “the emergency room is full of people doing something only every once and a while.” We laughed, and I said I was going to write about that, and so here we are. It struck me funny what he said, but almost instantaneously the Lord used George’s comment to bring to mind a quite serious reality that I see played out often in my life and in the lives of the people I am in community with. Let me explain.
Often times I can find myself in an apparent state of emergency, that is to say, there is some crisis or pain that is affecting my life that I feel needs to be drastically different. Most of my time counseling with others and working with people is much the same. There is some crisis, and we are there meeting in order to resolve it, so that we can get back to life as we like it; namely, free of suffering, free of need.
In building this stone wall the other day I was using muscles that go unused most days in my life and as a result, in the wake of overuse, I found my body in a state of emergency, feeling horrible and unable to rest. Most people can relate to this in their attempts to “get back in shape” though diet and fitness, getting all excited about their new commitment to a healthier self, only to run 6 miles the first time out, and are so sore from that experience that they can’t run for a month.
What’s perplexing in all of this is the naive shock that is expressed when we are humbled by the limitations of our bodies. Yet we often do not consider that it is not necessarily the limitations of our bodies, but the limitations of our untrained, undisciplined bodies that has led to the physical duress. It is a similar situation with our spiritual self. When we spend little to no portion of our daily lives in receiving comfort, guidance, and nurture from the Lord though the Holy Spirit and His Word, why then would we expect that when any crisis in our lives is experienced, we would have the capacity to receive, not produce, the experiential access to the Father that does lead to the capacity to endure. This is like waking up tomorrow and trying to run a marathon with no training.
This is not saying that through adequate preparation you will be able to face anything that life throws your way, but what I am saying is that for you to be strengthened by the Holy Spirit and eat from the “bread of life (John 6)” you need to have some working familiarity with the person of Jesus. (John 10:27-My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.) Why would we expect to be able to follow Jesus, know his voice, to receive from Him what we need to face the pain of life, when He is as familiar to us as the discipline of regular exercise? Sadly our response to Jesus invitation to depend daily upon the Father through Him for all we need looks often like our vain attempts to shave 10 pounds for a spring break bathing suit; often started a little to late for the desired result.
John 4:53-58 “ Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever."
Many disciples deserted Jesus after this teaching. The question is before us today. Do we believe what Jesus said when he stated that “my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink?” It is only when this reality breaks into the daily rhythms of our lives, that at the first sign of crisis and pain, we don’t pull a spiritual hamstring trying to get ourselves out of such emotional strain. We don’t sound the alarm and head to the emotional/spiritual emergency room because though our time encountering the person of Jesus we aren’t surprised by the pain of life (Isaiah 53:3- He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering), and aren’t confused about who has the power to comfort and redeem the pain (Isaiah 53:5-by his wounds we are healed).
George’s comment begs this question. Are we in the spiritual emergency room not because of a true crisis, but as a result of unbelief induced apathy that results in an “endurance-less” life that has no capacity through the Holy Spirit to endure and even have joy in the face of trials?
2 Corinthians 12:8-10 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
While speaking with my friend George the other day about my feeling old and worn out after a day of physically demanding work building a stone wall, he said this to me, “the emergency room is full of people doing something only every once and a while.” We laughed, and I said I was going to write about that, and so here we are. It struck me funny what he said, but almost instantaneously the Lord used George’s comment to bring to mind a quite serious reality that I see played out often in my life and in the lives of the people I am in community with. Let me explain.
Often times I can find myself in an apparent state of emergency, that is to say, there is some crisis or pain that is affecting my life that I feel needs to be drastically different. Most of my time counseling with others and working with people is much the same. There is some crisis, and we are there meeting in order to resolve it, so that we can get back to life as we like it; namely, free of suffering, free of need.
In building this stone wall the other day I was using muscles that go unused most days in my life and as a result, in the wake of overuse, I found my body in a state of emergency, feeling horrible and unable to rest. Most people can relate to this in their attempts to “get back in shape” though diet and fitness, getting all excited about their new commitment to a healthier self, only to run 6 miles the first time out, and are so sore from that experience that they can’t run for a month.
What’s perplexing in all of this is the naive shock that is expressed when we are humbled by the limitations of our bodies. Yet we often do not consider that it is not necessarily the limitations of our bodies, but the limitations of our untrained, undisciplined bodies that has led to the physical duress. It is a similar situation with our spiritual self. When we spend little to no portion of our daily lives in receiving comfort, guidance, and nurture from the Lord though the Holy Spirit and His Word, why then would we expect that when any crisis in our lives is experienced, we would have the capacity to receive, not produce, the experiential access to the Father that does lead to the capacity to endure. This is like waking up tomorrow and trying to run a marathon with no training.
This is not saying that through adequate preparation you will be able to face anything that life throws your way, but what I am saying is that for you to be strengthened by the Holy Spirit and eat from the “bread of life (John 6)” you need to have some working familiarity with the person of Jesus. (John 10:27-My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.) Why would we expect to be able to follow Jesus, know his voice, to receive from Him what we need to face the pain of life, when He is as familiar to us as the discipline of regular exercise? Sadly our response to Jesus invitation to depend daily upon the Father through Him for all we need looks often like our vain attempts to shave 10 pounds for a spring break bathing suit; often started a little to late for the desired result.
John 4:53-58 “ Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever."
Many disciples deserted Jesus after this teaching. The question is before us today. Do we believe what Jesus said when he stated that “my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink?” It is only when this reality breaks into the daily rhythms of our lives, that at the first sign of crisis and pain, we don’t pull a spiritual hamstring trying to get ourselves out of such emotional strain. We don’t sound the alarm and head to the emotional/spiritual emergency room because though our time encountering the person of Jesus we aren’t surprised by the pain of life (Isaiah 53:3- He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering), and aren’t confused about who has the power to comfort and redeem the pain (Isaiah 53:5-by his wounds we are healed).
George’s comment begs this question. Are we in the spiritual emergency room not because of a true crisis, but as a result of unbelief induced apathy that results in an “endurance-less” life that has no capacity through the Holy Spirit to endure and even have joy in the face of trials?
2 Corinthians 12:8-10 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Repentance that Leads to Rest.
Isaiah 30:15-This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: "In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.
Rest is a byproduct of peace, which is rooted in trust, that is born of faith and hope (which are both gifts), implanted in us by the Lord via the Holy Spirit. Trust is the antithesis of control. Control, and our absolute flesh plagued allegiance to it, is what robs us of rest, by removing the peace, through replacing trust, with a palatable lie. The lie is simply this; the rest that my soul was made for is something I can make happen, rather than something that I am powerless to manifest or sustain.
Oh but the lie tastes so sweet. You do have the power. You can have the control. It’s right at your fingertips. Just take the apple. God’s the one who’s lying.
We can all attest to being in this place. Having once again moved out of a gospel posture that we are invited through humility to assume always, and as a result have gotten busy trying to redeem our own lives and their circumstances. So how then do we reenter the rest our hearts so crave?
Satan is so committed to our being far from a gospel-centered rest that he would convince us through accusation that countless days of self-flagellating confession and penance (which is masked self-righteousness) will possibly suffice, if God is in a benevolent mood, but theirs no guarantee. His attempts and their focus are to try and twist even our repentance into some sort of control rooted in pride (I have the power to feel bad enough to deserve forgiveness and restoration.)
We only reenter the rest through true repentance. Psalm 51:17 -The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
A broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart. It is only when we are truly broken, that the soil of our hearts is fertile enough to receive from Him the rest that is only He can manifest and sustain. He increases our faith, strengthens our hope, births trust that allows us to let go of the “apparent” control we are trying to assume and allows us to experience His nearness in our pain which leads to peace (Ephesians 2:14 For he himself is our peace). This peace in turn leads to our much longed for rest.
Such brokenness is at the heart of repentance that leads to rest. (2 Corinthians 7:10 -Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret). It is important here that we recognize that it is only “Godly sorrow” that leads us to this place; sorrow that is not self-generated from personal analysis, but a reaction to being led by the Holy Spirit himself to a more full understanding of our sin. (John 8:7-8-Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt). And it is only in such a state of brokenness that we find the comforting words of the Psalmist to have such significant meaning and that we find rest in the peace afforded through His “nearness”.
Psalm 34:18 The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
Rest is a byproduct of peace, which is rooted in trust, that is born of faith and hope (which are both gifts), implanted in us by the Lord via the Holy Spirit. Trust is the antithesis of control. Control, and our absolute flesh plagued allegiance to it, is what robs us of rest, by removing the peace, through replacing trust, with a palatable lie. The lie is simply this; the rest that my soul was made for is something I can make happen, rather than something that I am powerless to manifest or sustain.
Oh but the lie tastes so sweet. You do have the power. You can have the control. It’s right at your fingertips. Just take the apple. God’s the one who’s lying.
We can all attest to being in this place. Having once again moved out of a gospel posture that we are invited through humility to assume always, and as a result have gotten busy trying to redeem our own lives and their circumstances. So how then do we reenter the rest our hearts so crave?
Satan is so committed to our being far from a gospel-centered rest that he would convince us through accusation that countless days of self-flagellating confession and penance (which is masked self-righteousness) will possibly suffice, if God is in a benevolent mood, but theirs no guarantee. His attempts and their focus are to try and twist even our repentance into some sort of control rooted in pride (I have the power to feel bad enough to deserve forgiveness and restoration.)
We only reenter the rest through true repentance. Psalm 51:17 -The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
A broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart. It is only when we are truly broken, that the soil of our hearts is fertile enough to receive from Him the rest that is only He can manifest and sustain. He increases our faith, strengthens our hope, births trust that allows us to let go of the “apparent” control we are trying to assume and allows us to experience His nearness in our pain which leads to peace (Ephesians 2:14 For he himself is our peace). This peace in turn leads to our much longed for rest.
Such brokenness is at the heart of repentance that leads to rest. (2 Corinthians 7:10 -Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret). It is important here that we recognize that it is only “Godly sorrow” that leads us to this place; sorrow that is not self-generated from personal analysis, but a reaction to being led by the Holy Spirit himself to a more full understanding of our sin. (John 8:7-8-Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt). And it is only in such a state of brokenness that we find the comforting words of the Psalmist to have such significant meaning and that we find rest in the peace afforded through His “nearness”.
Psalm 34:18 The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
“Bow down while your knees still bend, bow down while your knees still bend, the Masters calling, the Masters calling ”- Thad Cockrell
The past week has been riddled with difficulty in prayer. I feel restless, like I am searching for something, waiting for the Lord to say something, clear things up for me, give me some sense of direction and his will in a specific area of my life. Yet, if I am willing to allow the Lord to reveal to me what is honestly going on in my sub-conscious while praying, I’ve found my mind is far more dominated by acts of self-analyzation and vain attempts to “crack open” God’s mind on the matter, than a posture of truly listening to Him, marked by a deep sense of rest and trust that the Lord will reveal to me what he desires to, in His time and according to his pleasure. This rest allows us to be at peace, even when the desired response we seek from God isn’t given.
Galatians 5:25- “since we live by the spirit, let us keep in step with the spirit”
The humbling truth is that often I don’t want to stay in step with the Spirit; I want to stay a step ahead of the Spirit. A step ahead would seem to remove so much tension, so much anxious waiting, the need to be patient and listen, and replace the need to receive with the “feeling” of control. Another side effect that undoubtedly occurs is the elimination of the necessary relational engagement between the Lord and myself for peace to be imparted to us. Although the Lord is not bound by time, we as humans are, and therefore can only receive in the present what the Lord has for us in that moment. This is why staying in step with the Spirit isn’t a mere suggestion but a command given to us by Paul. What Paul is saying is that now that your very life is “hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3)” the only useful thing to do is to stay in step with the Spirit by which you now live.
Prayer often times is the vehicle not just by which I stay in step with the Spirit, but often the door through which I discover just how out of step I truly am. The Lord often specifically exposes the focus of my prayer, such as getting an answer from him on a unclear and painful situation, to reveal that the relational “yoking” that He invites us into when we are weary (Matthew 11:28), is not truly what I am after. To say it simply, Jesus I don’t want you, I just want you to fix this situation. But if we find that He often isn’t fixing the circumstances we so despise, yet is still clearly calling us into prayer (continually; 1 Thessalonians 5:17), why then would we pray?
Is it possible that our prayer to the Lord is not our self-derived attempt to communicate with God the desires of our hearts, but rather the response of our “spirit alive” hearts, to His calling of us? Revelation 3:20- here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.
Is it possible that the lack of response often times that we feel from the Lord to the things that we are brining to him is not as a result of his indifference on the matter, but our misunderstanding that what has brought us to Him in prayer was not primarily our desire to see the circumstances remedied, but what was underneath that desire, our spirit’s paramount desire, namely communion with God himself? Often times the circumstances that are causing me such duress are so much the focal point of my prayer that I miss the reality that it is the very things that I am dealing with that are the pathway that has brought me to this place of helplessness and leaning relationally into Jesus. This nearness to Christ, this “staying in step with the spirit” is the place from which I can enter the rest Jesus speaks of in Matthew 11.
Prayer is a means grace that leads to potential rest. It is often times because of our inability to rest that we approach the Lord in prayer, hoping that he would remedy some of the circumstances that are causing us the anxiety. If we are willing, prayer can become the place of rest we are seeking that on the surface we only believe possible with circumstantial change. It teaches us what our hearts truly desire; that which God told Abraham in Genesis 15, “I am you reward”. What we truly desire is to experience the nearness of God himself.
George Croly- “ I ask no dream, no prophet ecstasies, no sudden rending of the veil of clay, no angel visitant, no opening skies, but take the dimness of my soul away.”
The circumstances of this life and this world, all of its worries and trappings serve as a dimmer for the brilliance and wonder of what we have already been given fully in Christ. Prayer brings me back near to Christ, the very personal source of the “light” that illuminates my soul, that I may see more clearly all that I do have in Him, and in His radiance, is dimmed all that the world says I still yet need.
Philippians 4: 5-7: The Lord is near. 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.
Galatians 5:25- “since we live by the spirit, let us keep in step with the spirit”
The humbling truth is that often I don’t want to stay in step with the Spirit; I want to stay a step ahead of the Spirit. A step ahead would seem to remove so much tension, so much anxious waiting, the need to be patient and listen, and replace the need to receive with the “feeling” of control. Another side effect that undoubtedly occurs is the elimination of the necessary relational engagement between the Lord and myself for peace to be imparted to us. Although the Lord is not bound by time, we as humans are, and therefore can only receive in the present what the Lord has for us in that moment. This is why staying in step with the Spirit isn’t a mere suggestion but a command given to us by Paul. What Paul is saying is that now that your very life is “hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3)” the only useful thing to do is to stay in step with the Spirit by which you now live.
Prayer often times is the vehicle not just by which I stay in step with the Spirit, but often the door through which I discover just how out of step I truly am. The Lord often specifically exposes the focus of my prayer, such as getting an answer from him on a unclear and painful situation, to reveal that the relational “yoking” that He invites us into when we are weary (Matthew 11:28), is not truly what I am after. To say it simply, Jesus I don’t want you, I just want you to fix this situation. But if we find that He often isn’t fixing the circumstances we so despise, yet is still clearly calling us into prayer (continually; 1 Thessalonians 5:17), why then would we pray?
Is it possible that our prayer to the Lord is not our self-derived attempt to communicate with God the desires of our hearts, but rather the response of our “spirit alive” hearts, to His calling of us? Revelation 3:20- here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.
Is it possible that the lack of response often times that we feel from the Lord to the things that we are brining to him is not as a result of his indifference on the matter, but our misunderstanding that what has brought us to Him in prayer was not primarily our desire to see the circumstances remedied, but what was underneath that desire, our spirit’s paramount desire, namely communion with God himself? Often times the circumstances that are causing me such duress are so much the focal point of my prayer that I miss the reality that it is the very things that I am dealing with that are the pathway that has brought me to this place of helplessness and leaning relationally into Jesus. This nearness to Christ, this “staying in step with the spirit” is the place from which I can enter the rest Jesus speaks of in Matthew 11.
Prayer is a means grace that leads to potential rest. It is often times because of our inability to rest that we approach the Lord in prayer, hoping that he would remedy some of the circumstances that are causing us the anxiety. If we are willing, prayer can become the place of rest we are seeking that on the surface we only believe possible with circumstantial change. It teaches us what our hearts truly desire; that which God told Abraham in Genesis 15, “I am you reward”. What we truly desire is to experience the nearness of God himself.
George Croly- “ I ask no dream, no prophet ecstasies, no sudden rending of the veil of clay, no angel visitant, no opening skies, but take the dimness of my soul away.”
The circumstances of this life and this world, all of its worries and trappings serve as a dimmer for the brilliance and wonder of what we have already been given fully in Christ. Prayer brings me back near to Christ, the very personal source of the “light” that illuminates my soul, that I may see more clearly all that I do have in Him, and in His radiance, is dimmed all that the world says I still yet need.
Philippians 4: 5-7: The Lord is near. 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.
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