#11.

Prayer is a means by which God imparts peace to the soul: It is a primary

defense against the sin of anxiety.

1 Peter 5:6–7 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you
at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.

Philippians 4:6–7 Be anxious for nothing, 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
comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Martha was worried and bothered about many things, but only one thing was needful.
Mary chose the good part, sitting at the feet of her Lord, and that was not taken from
her. We are all prone to be like Martha in our own lives. We take it upon ourselves to
fret and worry about lots of different things - about what we will wear, what we will
eat and drink, whether we will be safe, whether we are terminally sick and so on. The
reality is that by worrying about these things, we cannot add a single hour to our lives.

All that our anxious thoughts, our worry and our fretting, do for us is to take us away
from the place where they can be put to rest - the feet of Jesus. God knows us through
and through. He knows all our circumstances and all our needs. He has promised to
care for us and to meet our needs fully in Christ. All we have to do is seek His
kingdom and His righteousness and everything else will take care of itself.

To remain anxious in the face of such promises from God is

to distrust Him completely. It is sin. It is to say that we believe we are better off
taking those cares and concerns upon ourselves than letting Him deal with them for
us, while we focus on Him.

Note what happens in the text from Philippians when we come to God in prayer and
supplication with thanksgiving and make our requests known to Him. It is when we
do this, and believe that He has heard us and will answer according to His infinite
grace, that the peace of God (a peace that passes all understanding) guards our hearts
and minds in Christ. Here is the end of doubt, the end of fear, the death of anxiety.
All these melt away as we come to God in believing prayer.

One temptation of this world is ever for us to strap our anxious cares back on, and to
bear the burden of them ourselves instead of casting them upon the One Who cares for
us. Let us learn through prayer to unburden ourselves to Him, the One Who has
shown Himself so able and willing to help us.
 O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear;
All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer!

The prayer meeting is a great place for us to meet and experience this
incomprehensible peace of God, as we let Him take our burdens while we sit
wonderingly at the feet of our Savior.

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