OUTLINE:
Php 4:6-7
do not be anxious [imperative mood = command]about anything, 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 understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
1Pe 5:7
casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.
Commands require faith for obedience to have its intended result.
Emotion Without Faith
Like ANY emotion we have in time, loneliness, in the absence of faith, is destined to bear bad fruit. With faith, we bear good fruit (e.g., we return to God to “find grace to help in time of need” – Heb 4:16).
Fiery darts from our enemies are intended to fracture our faith.
The Purpose of Pain
Pain typically doesn’t “shut up” or “turn off” until we address it. In this way, God uses it to deliver us from the vestiges of sin. He may not remove the source of your pain (ala 2Co 12:7), but regarding the temptation to fail the faith test, He will “provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it” (1Co 10:13).
Human Power
It typically manifests in mankind inventing solutions to problems that God has already accounted for and either solved directly (Php 4:19), or given us the means to cope with indirectly (1Co 10:13).
Human Power
It is the fingerprint of sinful man. Believers are called to depend on God’s grace however, sinful man (unbelievers and sinning believers) depends on his own strength to solve problems.
Unless GOD delivers you, you haven’t been delivered.
John 17:17
Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
Commands require faith for obedience to have its intended result.
Self-Sanctification
Do NOT concoct your own solution to a problem that God wants to solve for you, by grace. (Ro 12:12)
Man lacks faith.
A person’s nature is revealed by the type of advice he accepts.