(NKJV) Phil 4:6 Be anxious for nothing, 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 minds through Christ Jesus.
My husband and I were talking about my first heart attack last night, and just like two people witnessing a car accident but remembering it differently, we had disparate memories.
Larry remembered how anxious I was. I remembered having a supernatural calm settle over me.
I awoke at 5:30 in the morning to excruciating pain, not in my chest but in my ears, my jaws and going up into my head. I sat up in bed and decided to take an aspirin. I had not realized how weak I was until I tried to make it to the bathroom.
I was able to walk to the entrance to the bath when I collapsed in the chair just outside the bathroom door. I tried to call Larry but had very little oxygen. After a couple of tries, I was able to raise my voice just above a whisper.
Larry heard me, raised up out of bed, and asked what’s wrong. I answered I need help. I told him I needed an aspirin.
After a comedy of errors with Larry rifling through the cabinets and bringing ibuprofen and everything other than aspirin, he found the bottle and I chewed an aspirin. He asked what I needed now and I replied call 911.
We had been in Pittsburgh, PA for two weeks.
As the ambulance was carrying me out of the door, I prayed, Father, if this is it, then into thy hands I commit my spirit. So began a twenty-three year journey where my health began to take center stage. I was fifty years old, but I was not afraid.
The scripture speaks of the peace of God which passes all understanding. I experienced that peace with my first heart attack, and then sixteen years later when I had quadruple bypass surgery. So, peace was mine but the anxiety was Larry’s.
As a pastor who has sat with many families during surgery, it seems the hardest place to be is not in the operating room but in the waiting room. The OR is filled with a competent surgical team, and if anyone is anxious it does not show.
The waiting room, however, is filled with a mixture of folks-family, friends, pastors. During my first heart attack Larry was alone. During my surgery there were 35 people— some family and friends and the rest from four churches I had served.
I have found that the peace of God needs to be cultivated. If we wait until we need such peace, it may be hard to find.
Does cultivating peace mean I live in a perpetual state of bliss? No. But it does mean I know where to go to access such peace. I seek out scriptures that
will comfort and uplift me before challenges occur.
So today, I encourage you to find some “go to” verses that you can memorize and therefore have at your disposal whenever trouble arises. You will find any anxiety slipping away as you put more of your trust in God.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
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Seeking Holiness 