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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. – Philippians 4:6-7​

1. A negative imperative

So, first we see a “do not” exhortation.  Paul says to them, Do not be anxious about anything.  From this verse, it’s made clear to us that it is not becoming a Christian to be anxious.  Anxiety is not consistent with a heart trusting in God.  And Paul gives no provisions here.  He doesn’t say, “Do not be anxious about little things”.  He says anything.  

2. A positive imperative 

Instead, the Philippian Christians were to in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let their requests be made known to God.  The remedy to anxiety is to bring our requests to God.  How do we do that?

By prayer.  Through Christ we are able to pray directly to the Father, with the Holy Spirit’s help. 

By supplication.  This word means to petition someone, to plead earnestly with them.  Supplication is a specific kind of prayer, wherein the child of God earnestly requests something from the One who gives good and perfect gifts. 

But prayer is not enough to cure the anxious heart.  Paul adds a crucial attitude that’s required. 

With thanksgiving.  A Christian who pounds on the door of the throne room and marches in like a spoiled child is not pleasing to God.  Nor will his heart be prepared to receive the peace of God.  A Christian who pleads with God must do so with a heart of gratitude. 

3. The result 

If a person prays and pleads with thanksgiving, presenting their requests, the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.  Our hearts will be free from anxiety in a way that can’t rationally be explained.  Trusting God is the antidote to anxiety, and anxiety is of the enemy.

So, sheep, let’s not be anxious about anything, but in everything, may we lift up our requests to Him who is able to do even more than we ask or think. 

For the Christian Who’s Worrying

For any Christian who’s currently worrying about his/her life, remember what the Savior said:

And he said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.

(Luke 12:22-31 ESV)

What an encouraging reminder that God provides all good things!  Now, this isn’t a license for Christians to be lazy.  Paul says, “If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat” (2 Thessalonians 3:10).  But the Christian doesn’t need to be anxious.  God will provide.  Frankly, we have bigger to fish to fry (pun somewhat intended).  The Savior also tells us that man doesn’t live on bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.  So often, sheep, are we focused on the temporal and unfocused on the eternal.  We are so often caught up in the things of this world, that we ignore the things of Christ.  May God teach us to look at the temporal with an eternal lens, and may God help us to consider the things of this world in light of the things of Christ.  Our gracious Father knows what we need.  Let us seek His kingdom instead.

Today’s readings:

• Psalm 19
• Genesis 19
• 1 Chronicles 21:18-22:19
• Luke 12:13-48