Philippians 4:6-7 “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
Let me test your knowledge of literary terms: are the words nothing and everything “synonyms” or “antonyms”? If you guess antonyms, you are right! Antonyms are words that are opposites, and we would all agree that nothing and everything are opposites, right? Well, yes, most of the time that would be the case. But here in this passage, these two words are directly related to each other. Paul tells us to “be careful [worried] for nothing” but to pray about “everything.”
It is possible to live a worry-free life when we truly take everything to the Lord in prayer. Unfortunately, taking everything to the Lord in prayer does not come naturally. Our natural tendency is to worry first. We tend to look at prayer as more of a discipline or a duty. We know we should pray, and so maybe we time ourselves to see if we can pray for five minutes. Or we force ourselves to pray almost mechanical prayers to fulfill our duty. But this kind of prayer life is ineffective and empty. It does not bring the “peace of God” that verse 7 talks about.
God is looking for fervent prayer that only comes when we have a deep sense of our need. Earlier this year, I was traveling with my family in our truck, pulling our fifth-wheel trailer behind us. We had a blowout, and I had pulled off onto the narrow shoulder of the freeway with traffic buzzing by. I decided to pull a little further up the shoulder to a safer, wider place. When I maneuvered my truck and trailer I realized -in an instant-that I would have to pull out onto the freeway to keep the trailer from smashing into the guardrail. I didn’t have time to check for oncoming traffic, and without time to think about it, I cried, “Lord, help me!” This fervent prayer was nothing I had to “work up.” I wasn’t worried about the wording of my prayer. I just knew that I needed God to help me in a way that I could not help myself! How much more fervent our prayer lives would be if we realized how much we need the Lord’s help! Praying with purpose comes out of a deep sense of need.
Notice also that verse 6 tells us, “Let your requests be made known unto God.” God wants us to pray specifically. He does not want our prayers to be filled with vague generalities; He wants us to make our requests known to Him. Tell God what you need. You will find that when you are specific in your requests, you will see specific answers to those prayers. And as a result, your thanks to Him will no longer be filled with generalities. You will be able to thank God for specific things He has done in your life.
Don’t be content just to know about God’s attributes because you have read about them in the Bible or in the testimonies of men who have long since gone to heaven. See your God display His attributes to you in your own life! How much fuller and richer your walk with the Lord will be-and how peaceful your heart will become! Worry about nothing. Pray about everything.
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Prayer Requests:
– New York City Evangelistic Outreach next month (Jan. 5-9, 2009) |