Thanks Living: Companionship

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 understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6, 7

Be anxious: to be troubled with cares, distracted, take thought

Nothing: not even one, absolutely not one

Everything: every condition or in every matter, anything whatsoever

Prayer: earnest prayer addressed to God

Supplication: feel pressing need because of lack; hence, to make urgent appeal; to have deep personal need causing one to beseech (make earnest, specific request)

With: association and companionship; the same relations of participation

Thanksgiving: gratitude; actively, grateful language (to God, as an act of worship)

Requests: a thing asked

Make known: be brought to the knowledge of

To: respect, which is the destination of the relation

God: the Creator and owner of all things

And: moreover, even, indeed

Peace: quietness, rest

God: the Creator and owner of all things

Surpasses: superior, superiority, excellency, higher, supreme

All: part(s) of a totality

Understanding: the intellective faculty, the understanding

Will guard: to mount guard as a sentinel; to hem in, protect—keep (with a garrison)

Hearts: the center and seat of spiritual life, "the soul or mind, as it is the fountain and seat of the thoughts, passions, desires, appetites, affections, purposes, endeavors"

Mind: thoughts and purposes; the intellect

Through: as in the condition (state) in which something operates from the inside (within)

Christ Jesus: the Anointed One; His human name, as the incarnate, eternal Son of God

Association and Companionship.

With the same earnest compassion as when I make an urgent appeal to God—I am to give thanks to God. The earnest prayer expressing my need is to always be in the companionship of thanksgiving. 

Where the is a pressing need, anxiety becomes overwhelming, for we become consumed with the pressing need. However, when that need is shared with God along with thanksgiving to God, then God's peace becomes supreme diminishing the anxiety. 

Requests should always be in the companionship of thanksgiving. For when thoughts are directed from the urgent pressing need to thanking God for who He is, then things are put back into their proper perspective. And when one can see the situation from God's perspective, then peace overwhelms the anxiety. 

Companionship. 

God wants to hear our urgent pressing needs! But we must always make sure that we keep the companionship intact—request/thanksgiving. Thanks Living is truly understanding (and practicing) the companionship of crying out and thanksgiving. 

Proverbs 1:11-14: Companionship

If they say, “Come with us, let us lie in wait to shed blood; let us lurk secretly for the innocent without cause; 1et us swallow them alive like Sheol, and whole, like those who go down to the Pit; we shall find all kinds of precious possessions, we shall fill our houses with spoil; cast in your lot among us, let us all have one purse”— Proverbs 1:11-14

with us: companionship, together with

lie in wait: actually, ambush. 

shed blood: blood in quantity, hence sometimes of blood shed by rude violence, and of blood-stains

Lurk: hidden

innocent: free from guilt, clean,

swallow: engulf, of violence, extortion

Sheol: underworld (place to which people descend at death)

whole: sound healthful

Pit: pit of the grave

Find: secure prey, booty, plunder

Precious: costly

Possessions: wealth

Spoil: plunder

Cast: share with us

Lot: cast thy fortune into the midst of us, in with us

One: combine 

Purse: money

"Let us kill anyone in our way, and steal anything we want. We will then share all that we steal." Sounds much like a description of what is happening across our Nation. No regard for human life. No regard for laws. No respect. Pure lawlessness. 

It's vital that we know who we have a companionship with BEFORE they entice us into sin. In many relationships we see the "end result" of the PRIZE—money, riches, fame, etc—and that clouds our judgment. We ignore how the "Prize" was obtained. That end result skews our judgment and make us disregard our morals. 

"If they say"—in order to hear them, I must be in their company. And that is a bad location! Psalm 1:1: 

"Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful."

If my heart is permeated with a deep sense of reverence for God (Acts 9:31 MSG), I will not feel comfortable in the companionship of sinners, much less want to hear them as they work to entice me to follow in their sinful ways. 

Friends

continued.... "deep sense of reverence for God" (Acts 9:31). 

"I am a companion of all those who fear, revere, and worship You, and of those who observe and give heed to Your precepts." Psalm 119:63 (AMP)

The people who are my companions, friends, say something about me. Biblically friends have a responsibility to each other.... "In the same way that iron sharpens iron, a person sharpens the character of his friend." Proverbs 27:17. 

I'm thankful for the friends God has put in my life. They have helped me grow in so many ways. Having friends who have a deep sense of reverence for God are vital to developing my own sense of reverence for God. 

Friends, companions. That word companion means "knit together". I'm not a knitter, but from what I understand if use different types of yarns in the same project, your finished project won't hold up to use and washing. For example, some yarns have "memory" and hold their shape better than others. And some shrink when washed. So if part of your project is made with yarn that shrinks and another part with yarn that holds it shape, your project will be ruined as the shapes and yarns change over time. 

This is true with friendships. Those close friends should be ones that encourage and help you in developing a closer relationship with God. 

If your friends are not living a godly life, then they will tend to give you wrong advice and discourage you from making godly choices. 

I don't think this means isolate ourselves from unbelievers, rather just make sure that your companions, those that you are closely knit together with, have a deep sense of reverence for God. 

Now.... what type of friend am I? I personally need to develop that deep sense of reverence for God so that I can be the friend God wants me to be.