Hello, my name is Fergus Scarfe and welcome to God Today. In the book of Philippians, Paul has an almost outrageous line: “be anxious for nothing.” Does Paul realize how hard our life is? Does Paul realize some of the challenges that we’re facing today? Did Paul honestly write that for people that would understand what it’s like? Well, let’s read it. Philippians chapter four, but he doesn’t start with being anxious for nothing. He starts on a beautiful, positive: “Rejoice in the Lord, always. And again, I say, rejoice, let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand.” And from that place, he says, “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 passes all our understanding will guard our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Have we ever taken the apostle Paul at his word? Have we taken that opportunity in the midst of our anxiety, in the midst of our pain, in the midst of our apparently unanswered prayers, to follow his model, to start with rejoicing, to let our gentleness be known to all other people, because the Lord is at hand? And from that place of knowing that He is near, knowing that He is with us, knowing that He is untroubled by the things that trouble us, we can take those anxieties, we can take those worries, we can take those fears before the Lord in prayer and something wonderful happens.
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 passes all our understanding will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. God Today family, there is a beautiful thing to do with the anxieties that we face each day. We start by rejoicing. That’s always a good thing to do because He is with us, letting others know our gentleness and then taking the things that we are anxious about, the things that we are troubled by, the things that we are struggling with, and take them, mixed with thanksgiving before the Lord in prayer. And He promises that there is a peace that passes what we understand, a peace literally that says, will garrison or mount guard around our hearts. And from that place of peace, we can be assured that our Father, our heavenly Father will not only hear our prayer, He will address our prayer, and He will answer our prayer today. So from us all, we say, “God bless you,” but genuinely, and with experience in each one of our own lives, be anxious for nothing today.