Philippians 4:6To: Philippians Main MenuTo: Grace Notes Home Page Philippians 4:6Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.This is the third principle for untangling broken relationships. The first principle is to orient to the Lord--"Rejoice in the Lord." The second principle is the principle of deference -- "Let your gentleness be known to all men." Now we come to the third principle for resolving deep hurts among people. BE ANXIOUS FOR NOTHING Anxiety is the source of much conflict in our lives. If we feel insecure about ourselves we warp our relationships with others. All of us retain vulnerable areas about which we like to worry. If someone steps into that area, a strong possibility of conflict exists. Anxiety is a form of fear. It is the fear of being placed in suspension between two points. Anxiety is apprehension or worry about what may happen either good or bad. We do not know if the good will come about. We do not know if the bad will occur. We hang in uncertainty as we suspend between the good and the bad. This is anxiety, the fear of uncertainty. Some people would rather encounter the bad predicament rather than suspend in insecurity. Uncertainty to them is worse of all bad things that could possibly happen. Security is the core value above all else. Anxiety is a sin because it demonstrates a lack of confidence in the sovereignty of God to deal with our concerns. It is only after we tie ourselves in a knot that we realize apprehension is sin. It is a besetting sin to some Christians. It enfeebles the soul. It ruffles the temper. It is a manifestation of mistrust. It distracts from communion with God. The words "be anxious for nothing" convey three ideas in the original language. 1. It is a command. It is our responsibility by our volition not to enter into anxiety. APPLICATION: The sin of anxiety closely connects to lack of confidence in God. The more we accept God's sovereign hand upon the uncertainties of life, the less apprehensive we are about life. We are less insecure. An insecure person is vulnerable to what others think about them. Security in God's plan for us gives us an independence from what others think about us. Do you worry about the tense relationships in your life? Have you placed problem people in the hands of God? At least you have dealt with one half of the problem -- yourself. The word "anxious" is the common word in the gospels for harassing care. "Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on." (Mt. 6:25). "So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin." (Mt. 6:28). "Therefore do not worry, saying 'What shall we eat?' or 'what shall we drink' or 'What shall we wear?' (Mt. 6:31). "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about is own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble" (Mt.6:34). Worry is a device of the devil. It is a sin that assaults a proper view of the person and work of God. We worry due to a sense of inadequacy. So we try to bring circumstances under our control. We ultimately come to the conclusion we cannot bring life under our control. When we realize that we cannot bring circumstances under our control we worry. If we do not have the funds to pay our bills, we worry. When someone asks us to do something beyond what we feel is our capacity, we worry. A student will worry about exams when he is not prepared. Some students will worry about exams even if they are prepared. PRINCIPLE: Worry is the attempt to predict the future. It is an attempt to control circumstances. It plays the role of God. APPLICATION: Worry is futile because it never changes anything. However, trust in God's sovereignty will change us. It will free us from anxiety. The issue is no longer our adequacy but God's adequacy. I Peter 5:7 is a parallel verse to Philippians 4:6, "Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you." The word "care" is the same word as our word "anxious." We are to cast our anxiety upon the Lord. Unload it all. The key word in I Peter 5:7 is the word "for." "For" means "because." The reason we can cast is because we know God cares about us. Casting in itself does not relieve worry. The reason we cast is the point of the verse. Knowledge of God's care allows us to cast. Psalm 55:22, "Cast your burden on the LORD, And He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved" The psalmist saw that there are things too great for us to carry. David referred to those things as "burdens." He never denied that trouble would come. He only asserted what to do when trouble comes. The child of God is to transfer that burden upon the Lord. Psalm 37: 1,3,4,5 "Do not fret because of evildoers, Nor be envious of the workers of iniquity Trust in the LORD, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD, Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass." Committing one's way to the Lord is the same as "casting." The word "commit" means to "roll off." Let your burdens roll onto the Lord. This is the picture of a man carrying a great load. It is too heavy for him. He needs to let it roll off him onto the Lord. Faith believes God capable to bear what we cannot. He will, if we give him the opportunity. PRINCIPLE: We dispel anxiety by giving them to the Lord. If we know that God cares for us we can give them to him. APPLICATION: Have you cast your anxieties on the Lord and then take them back? The reason we do is because we believe that the act of casting is the important point of I Peter 5:7. However, the crucial point of the verse is our confidence in God's care for us. If we have confidence in that, we will truly cast our anxieties upon him. The word "nothing" means "not one thing." We are to worry about "not one thing." It is emphatic in the sentence. Stop worrying about even one thing. Worry will short circuit our fellowship with God. Anxiety indicates we do not trust in the sovereignty of God. "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose" (Rom 8:28). Does God have his hand on the reigns of the universe? We think that worry will help God manage the universe. Do we exercise faith in connection to our problems? Do you worry about "not one thing"? You say, "Yes, that is me, I never worry about anything." We would all question the veracity of that statement. We say, "I do not worry, I just get a little exercised at times." That is how we rename worry. Folks rationalize sin by explaining it away. No one can do our fretting for us; we do it to ourselves. We permit our mind to be troubled and upset. We worry about our bills, our children, our health, our business. Our motto is: "Why pray when we can worry." "I gave my problems to the Lord but I took them back.." All they wanted to do was to get out of the jam. All they want from God is an aspirin. We cannot worry and claim the promises at the same time. Worry and faith are mutually exclusive. They cannot coexist. Faith in faith is not biblical faith. Faith in the Bible always has an object. We can trust God because he has given us a principle or promise. He has made a verbal commitment to us and we can trust him for the fulfillment of it (Is 41:10; Ps 55:22; I John 1:9). Belief requires something concrete. PRINCIPLE: If we worry about any area of our lives, that area does not operate under faith in God's promises. APPLICATION: When you confess your sin do you have a gnawing feeling that you are not forgiven? Is there an anxiety about whether God accepts you back? This is an issue of trust in God's promises such as I John 1:9, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." BUT IN EVERYTHING BY PRAYER "But"--strong contrast. In counter distinction to worry, pray about it. "Everything" cancels "nothing" out. Pray about everything. Be anxious about nothing. Bring every single thing to the Lord in prayer: Little things, big things, medium-sized things, trivial things, gigantic things. Nothing is too large to pray about; nothing is too small to pray about. So "everything" is a corollary to "nothing" in the phrase "Be anxious for nothing." Prayer is always a faith exercise. The remedy for worry is prayer. People who worry the most pray the least. "In everything" means in every circumstance of life. There is nothing that we face in life we cannot take to God. Prayer is the mechanic of placing our needs in God's hands. When we believe God's Word that he meets us in our need, we pray. It is one thing to know worry is wrong. It is another thing to stop worrying. After the command ("Be anxious for nothing") comes the solution. The solution to worry is to recognize that we cannot solve many of the apprehensions we face, only God can. When we worry we deny God's sovereignty. We assume that sovereignty to ourselves. If God is not sovereign we better worry. If God is alive and well, there is no need to worry. The word "everything" suggests that there is no situation that we face not open to God's interest. "Everything" is a term of panacea. Prayer is a panacea for anything we face. People say there are no panaceas anymore. God teaches us that there is a panacea in prayer. PRINCIPLE: There is nothing about which we cannot pray. God concerns himself with every detail of our lives. APPLICATION: God cares about everything we face. He cares about our relationships. There is nothing about which we need to reserve an attitude of worry. It is difficult to maintain an attitude of hostility toward someone if we are at peace. We realize that life is too short. Others may malign us. They may gossip about us. It makes no difference what they do because we are at peace within ourselves. We have put the whole situation in the Lord's hands. They are upset; we are relaxed. Paul uses three different words for prayer in this verse. First, the ordinary word for prayer -- "by prayer." The second word for prayer is "supplication" which connotes the idea of asking for things. Finally, "requests" refer to particular requests. The word translated "prayer" means to present our desires to the Lord. It has to do with telling God what we would like him to do for us. It means to go to God with a conscious dependence upon him. We trust him to fulfill our need. We are not asking him to do something he has asked us to do. We are praying about things only he can uniquely do for us. The word "prayer" is in the instrumental case. It is by means of prayer that we stop worrying. We do that by presenting our worries to God and leave them with him. Prayer is the means of putting our situation in the Lord's hands. Most people will not admit this. Deep in their heart they want a sudden miracle that will remove the pain immediately. This is the very thing we usually will not receive in answer to prayer. When we put the situation in the Lord's hand the pressure is still there but the worry is not. God does not always solve our problems by removing the problem. Sometimes he resolves the problem by changing us. PRINCIPLE: Prayer is the means to alleviate worry. APPLICATION: At the point we put the problem in the Lord's hands we remove ourselves from the loop of anxiety. We no longer worry about it. At times the Lord will remove the problem immediately. Other times he may chose to let us ride with it until we come to the place of strong faith. He wants to put us to the test of utilizing his provisions. He has given certain divine operating assets. The more we are aware of those assets and appropriate them, the more we trust God. The problem remains but we have given it to the Lord. If we do this we will have peace (v.7). AND SUPPLICATION A supplication is a specific request for a particular need. It is a special entreaty for a special situation. This is prayer for a special need. People are praying for revival in North America. This is a supplication. Supplication moves us in our prayer from the general to the specific. Prayer that God will "bless me and my loved ones" is not specific prayer. We take a specific need to God and charge him with the responsibility of meeting it. Prayers are ordinary requests. Supplications are unique, special requests. Ordinary prayers are presented without a great deal of emotional steam. No one is sick or about to die. Supplication is another matter. Supplication is earnest entreaty about a special need. We are not sure whether God is going to bring our husband through surgery. Prayer and supplication are listed together in a number of passages: "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints--" (Eph. 6:18). "Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men" (I Tim. 2:1-3). "Who in the days of his flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear" (Heb. 5:7). PRINCIPLE: Supplication is a special privilege of prayer to meet special needs. APPLICATION: Do you set aside certain times for supplication in your prayer life? WITH THANKSGIVING Accompany prayer "with thanksgiving." We thank God for the privilege of prayer and for answered prayer. Thanksgiving verifies capacity of soul to appreciate God. Thanking God in advance of the answer is an act of faith. Thanksgiving looks back to previous answers to prayer and gives thanks, "Last week I went to God with that same gnawing anxiety and he met me in my need." Confidence for the future is based on confidence in the past. Do not forget to stir in a generous amount of thanksgiving before you get the answer. "Thanksgiving" is an indication of capacity to appreciate God. If we do not appreciate God we will not even pray properly much less give thanks. Thanksgiving implies gratitude. Gratitude implies submission to God. When we become convinced that God works all things together for good, we are grateful to a sovereign God. Thanksgiving indicates a heart that is at rest. We come to rest in the will of God and submit to whatever he chooses to do. Whatever the outcome we rest in God's sovereign hand. Thanksgiving means that we have peace about how God is going to answer. Thanksgiving is one of the five categories of prayer. The other four categories are confession, praise, petition and intercession. If we omit thanksgiving in prayer, our prayer is out of balance. How many people have you heard pray, "Oh God, help me" and not thank God for a thing? They were not thankful at all. Their only focus was to get out of the jam. The heat was on and they were trying to squirm out. God was irrelevant to them. He was a genie who will help them out of their fix. PRINCIPLE: Thanksgiving indicates a capacity of soul that appreciates God and his work. APPLICATION: Why give thanks? This is the response of faith to a faithful God. Thanksgiving is more than thankfulness for material things. Unbelievers give thanks for material blessing. Christians should thank God for the grace of God, the provisions God has made in Christ. We should thank him for our positional truth, for the wonder of his attributes. The extent of some people's capacity for thanks is to thank God that the pressure is removed. Once the pressure goes they move on and forget that God exists. LET YOUR REQUESTS BE MADE KNOWN TO GOD We are to present our requests to God as if he did not know all about it. A mother loves to listen to her crying child tell her about the problem. She shows sympathy and understanding. She wants to hear about both the hurts and the triumphs. A little child can be quite sure that whatever happens to them, it is of interest to their mother. We can take all of our cares both past and future to God, with all of our shame and our needs, with all our fears into the presence of God. Get your requisition in and leave it there. We will not worry about when God answers or how he will answer or if he will ever answer. Once the requisition is in, we have done all that God requires of us. We dare not dictate to God how he must answer. Prayer is not twisting the arm of a reluctant God. God meets us in his own sovereign way. There are times when he meets us at the point of our desires. At other times he chooses not to answer our prayer with a "yes." After the trial passes away we say, "Why did I worry about that? God worked it out according to his will. The next time I get into a hassle like that I will not worry. I have learned my lesson." Often we do not learn that lesson. The proof of unbelief is worry. We feel we must help God work out the problem. Worry will help him solve my difficulty. So we eat our heart out with worry. Prayer is just the opposite. It places problems confidently in the hands of God. If we pray it must be a prayer that the Savior can initial. We all are careful about the things we endorse. We do not put our signature on everything. Likewise the Lord Jesus does not endorse every prayer. If he did he would be capricious. He could not do that; it would imperil his name, "And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son, if you ask anything in My name, I will do it" (John 14:13,14). The words "to God" mean "in the presence of God." Prayer made with a conscious idea of the presence of God is true prayer. Many of our prayers are mechanical. We say words but do not personally talk to God. PRINCIPLE: God wants to know about our requests. Our responsibility is to make them known to him. APPLICATION: This call to prayer is not a call to inaction. The believer is to take responsibility for the things for which God has given him capacity. Apathy is no attribute of Christianity. ---------- Copyright © 1995, Dr. Grant Richison. All rights reserved. There is no charge for Grace Notes Materials. 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