Anchored
Surviving the Turmoil
After attending the funeral of a close friend, I had several questions about his seemingly senseless passing. But, looking back at my own life, I realise also that there are things that have taken place to which I had no real answer or closure at the time, but everything worked out the way it supposed to.
Sometimes bad things happen to good people.
In Matthew 24, the passage commonly referred to as “The Olivet Discourse”, Jesus speaks to His disciples about the coming tribulations of the last days. He details certain aspects of the end-times as well as describes the tribulation that His followers may have to endure.
We were warned.
Jesus warned us about coming trials and tribulations. In John 16:33, He says, “In the world, you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” Furthermore, 1 Peter 4:12-13 (NLT) says: “Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you. Instead, be very glad—for these trials make you partners with Christ in his suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all the world.”
Evidently, as Christians, we are not to be surprised by trials or difficult situations because we were notified that these situations will present themselves at some point. While going through a recent difficult period, I looked to the Word for guidance, and I found a passage of scripture that describes how to navigate these circumstances in an unusual way. Or, to clarify, I think I’ve misunderstood the meaning of this scripture for years.
Philippians 4:6-7
6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
How are we supposed to deal with turmoil. Sometimes we can be going along in our Christian Walk, and we can be doing the things we perceive to be right but yet everything seems to be going wrong all around us.
Take for instance the example of Daniel. In Daniel 9 and 10, Israel had been in captivity in Babylon for a period of 70 years. During these 70 years the children of God were subjected to:
1) Captivity and deportation
a. The Babylonians besieged Jerusalem and took the Israelites captive and deported their youngest and best minds to Babylon.
2) An idolatrous environment
a. Babylon was known as the centre of idolatry and wickedness.
3) Training and adaptation
a. Daniel and his friends were forced to adopt a culture that was foreign from their own and faced pressure to conform to the practices that were against their beliefs.
4) Unfair treatment
a. Daniel found himself locked up with a bunch of hungry lions even though he did nothing wrong.
So, throughout this period of bad circumstances Daniel continued to prayer up to three times a day. In Daniel 9 and 10, Daniel is pleading for mercy because of the sins of the people. The angel Gabriel appears to him and tells him that his prayers were heard at the time of his prayer, but the angel was delayed because of spiritual warfare for up to 21 days. In fact, the angel had to be helped by the arch-angel Michael to break through the spiritual resistance.
This portion of scripture is comforting in a way because we can be confident that the Lord hears our prayers and dispatches help on time.
What to do in the waiting
Taking our example from Daniel, what can we do when we find ourselves in chaos or tumultuous times? Maybe we’re in financial difficulties, maybe our children are wayward, maybe we’ve received a negative report from the doctor. There are many problems that we can face daily and can cause us to be anxious.
Our Master Jesus told us not to be anxious in Matthew 6:34: “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
The Apostle Paul also tells us in Philippians 4:6 that we should not be anxious. However, Paul also goes further and gives us a strategy for surviving the hard times.
Read Philippians 4:6-7
6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by:
Prayer
An address or petition to God in word or thought, an earnest request or wish.
There are various ways we can pray and there are different types of prayers. But what helped me was to look at a specific definition of prayer known as petition. The legal definition or understanding of a petition is: a formal, written down request. So, to me this means that there should be some kind of structure to our prayer life.
One of things that helps is writing our prayers down. Everyone is different but I’ve found that writing down our prayers sometimes helps us articulate exactly how we are feeling. It keeps us praying for a specific need or request but also helps us examine our motives. (James 4:3)
Writing down our prayers also gives us some kind of structure, but I think more importantly, we create a record that we can go back to. Our faith is strengthened every time we see a prayer that has been answered.
Supplication
To make humble entreaty, or to plead humbly.
The word supplication has the word supple as its’ root. One of the definitions of supple is to make compliant, submissive, or obedient. Praying in supplication means stripping ourselves of our own pride and our self-righteousness. Sometimes we tend to measure our good works when making requests to God. We determine on our hearts that because we didn’t sin yesterday or we have “been living right” in our own eyes, we deserve for our prayers to be answered.
Praying in supplication means that we must understand that God is Sovereign and He alone knows what is best for us. One of the things that can make us self-righteous is when we look at the unrighteous prospering. We tend to look at others who are living worse than us (in our opinion) but seem to have it all together. We then complain ask how come it seems that God is answering the prayers of the so-called unrighteous, yet we are suffering. God is sovereign and in Matthew 5:45, while teaching us love our enemies, he states that God makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
There is nothing that we can do in our flesh to manipulate the hand of God. Sometimes it may seem unfair that “non-believers” seem to have everything, and we are suffering but the Bible says in Psalm 37, Don’t worry about the wicked, or envy those who do wrong. For like grass they soon fade away. Like spring flowers, they soon wither.
While praying and waiting for answers we should stay in humility.
with Thanksgiving let your requests be made known (the Anchor)
The expression of gratitude, especially to God.
The act of saying or showing that you are grateful, especially to God.
Notably, the word thanksgiving seems to have an action attached to it. It is something that we must express outwardly either by saying or doing. Also, it is easier to demonstrate gratitude for something that has already happened than to do it before. This is just human nature; we require more faith to be thankful before the situation than after.
This is another example of how writing down our prayers can be helpful. We can look back at all the wonderful miracles that we have seen, and we can thank God that, because he brought us through previous problems, He is well and able to bring us through whatever turmoil we may be experiencing currently.
Think back at how many times in the past you may have thought that your life was over. Or how many times you had no idea how you were going to get through a situation. Some of us faced periods in our lives where we thought that it was the end, that there was no hope. But we ARE STILL HERE! God, in his sovereignty saw it fit to reach down and lift us out of that situation. And some of us, like the Hebrew boys in the fire, we didn’t even smell like smoke. That situation that was supposed to finish us off in fact refined us and made us stronger, better, healthier, and richer!
Expressing our gratitude anchors us to hope and faith. Because looking back and being thankful starts to build our faith. We look at what the Lord has done and realise that if he could do it before, he can definitely do it now. And like in Daniel, the answer to our prayer is ALREADY on the way.
The peace of God, that passes all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Tranquillity, Freedom from disturbance.
Mental or emotional calm.
Freedom from disquieting (taking away peace or tranquillity) or oppressive thoughts or emotions.
The word “peace” is used 100 times in the New Testament. Additionally, we are also taught not to be anxious.
To me, peace that passes all understanding speaks to a divine tranquillity that comes over us once we have adopted the strategy of by prayer, supplication, with thanksgiving. This peace is a peace that does not panic in times of turmoil. This peace has been underpinned by an unwavering trust that if God could do it before, he can do it again. This peace confuses the enemy because, while everything around you seems to be in absolute chaos, we as Christians are busy clapping, singing, praising, and worshipping our God. Our unwavering trust has anchored us to the promise that, even if our circumstances do not change, He has given us the strength to get through it.
Finding this peace brings a calmness and tranquillity to our lives even amid the storm. We can trust in God because he has never let us down.
Circumstances can hurt.
The most surprising part of Philippians 4 is that Paul does not tell us that we will be rescued from our problems, so to speak. I expected that we would be given some sort of magical formula to change our circumstances, because circumstances sometimes hurt.
Sometimes we go through very traumatic events that can shape our outlook on life in a negative way. And, as Christians, we sometimes have an escapist mentality whereby we long for heaven and prefer to leave this place. But for many of us our job on earth is not over and God still has work for us to do. So, we must learn to cope with our problems and trust Him, even though it is painful.
Jesus has given us peace that carries us through the pain. We start to realise that God is not slow concerning his promises and sometimes there is also an element of repentance that must be addressed. Once we grab hold of this peace, it takes us beyond our pain into a stable and consistent life. We learn how to deal with the unknown based on our trust in God. (2 Peter 3:9)
SHIP’S ANCHORING DEMONSTRATION
I was surprised to find out that there are two components to anchoring the ship.
1 The anchor which fixes itself to the bottom of the ocean.
2 The chain that anchors and stabilizes the ship by its length and weight.
In fact, the chain seems to play a bigger role in the stabilization of the ship. In thinking about what it means to be anchored through a storm, I thought about the following:
The Anchor
A fixed point which, once delivered to its’ place of restraint cannot be moved. This is likened to God’s promises, they are fixed and cannot be changed.
The Chain
The anchor chain can be likened to the strategy of prayer, supplication, with thanksgiving = peace that passes all understanding.
What is ironic is that the longer and heavier the chain is, the more stable the ship becomes. So maybe, as we go through our waiting period, we pray more, we supplicate more, we give thanks more? This will stabilise us in spite of the difficulties that seem to be tossing us around.
This is how I understand the peace that passes all understandings to operate. It leads us to hope and trust that our answers are on the way. He has never let us down before and he never will.
Encouragement
The strategy in Philippians works like anchor chain and stabilises you while you wait for an answer. One would think that Paul would tell us about how our circumstances will change if we pray, or how God will supernaturally take the pain away, but it seems that the focus is more on the fact that we will be given the tools to endure the storms as opposed the storm being removed.
It’s almost as if it is a given that we will go through storms, but also a given that these same storms are very temporary. How we react to this turmoil is determined by our level of spiritual maturity. Jesus has promised us that He will give us perfect peace during these times. We just need to trust him and believe.