June 19

Anxious for Nothing?!

 

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.  ––Philippians 4:6

I’ve stumbled over this verse for years. I mean, we all know Paul was a former Pharisee with very exacting standards, but how can we be anxious for nothing? Not for the rent payment when we are a little short? Or waiting for the test results to come back that “might” say it’s cancer? I like the KJV that says, “Be careful for nothing,” which means to not pick up unnecessary cares. I’ve actually never met a single person who has achieved what Paul “seems” to be saying. Have you? 

Here’s the upshot: Paul isn’t telling us not to have emotions, He’s telling us that when those emotions come—fear, worry, anxiety—we need to go to God with them. Big difference. It’s kind of like when Matthew says, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). That’s another tough verse until you understand that Matthew—a former tax collector who also had a precise personality, I’m sure—was admonishing us to accept Christ’s perfection for our imperfections. To enter into the fullness of grace. 

So when you wake up at 4:30am worried about the bills, or your teen daughter who wants to shave half her head, or whatever it might be, remember the last half of the verse: “In everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God.” Supplication is a great word meaning to surrender or give over—when we surrender those worries, and keep surrendering them, things do change. Does the problem go away? Not necessarily. But our desire to control the problem diminishes. 

What are you anxious about today? Write out the top 3-4 things that keep you up at night, and before you go to sleep, give them to God in prayer. Surrendering our cares and anxieties is possible because “with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26). When God’s man brings a heavy heart to the throne, God will meet him there. 

Father, I surrender my anxieties to You today. Help me to keep surrendering them as they flood my mind.