Do not be anxious about anything

Is it very difficult to believe that God can do anything?


Or is it because we know he can do anything, but we don't think he'll do it for us?


When it comes to making requests of God, the verse that comes to mind most readily is probably Philippians 4:6-7.


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.


So what do these verses tell us? Firstly, we are not to be anxious. I would suppose that any of us would rather set our minds at rest, than be constantly anxious. Yet, we all know that anxiety is not something that is readily controlled. At best, it is a nagging worry that pops up from time to time. At worst, it is a compulsive fear that possess the mind and paralyses us from doing anything else.


How then could Paul tell us to not be anxious? He tells us to fight this anxiety. How? "By prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God." We are to bring all our anxieties to God: anything that makes us anxious, we are to make known to him.


Paul assures us then that God's peace "which surpasses all understanding", something supernatural and beyond all human comprehension, will "guard" or defend our "hearts and minds in Christ Jesus".


Clearly, the possession of this peace is not dependent on whether or not the request we make is granted. Paul says nothing of God granting our every request, and therefore endowing us with peace. We ourselves know that it would be terrifying if our every whim was granted.


Rather, the key lies in the word "thanksgiving": as we make our request of God, we are to simultaneously give thanks. Note, we are not told to give thanks out of gratitude if and when our requests are granted. We are to give thanks even as we petition God.


Why can we give thanks? Although we do not know if our God will grant our request, we can give thanks for what we do know. We know that God is almighty and all-wise. He will give us what is best for us.


11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.  


Jeremiah 29:11-13


God promises a future and a hope. Yet this hope is not in the promise of wealth, health or anything material or earthly. This future he promises is in himself, hence he says: "You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart."


And this is why we can give thanks, because our hope is not in whether or not our request is granted, but it is in the unchanging character of the Lord God. As he declared himself to Moses at Mt Sinai:


The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation. 


Exodus 34:6-7


He abounds "in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands" and forgives our "iniquity and transgression and sin". This is why we have "a future and a hope" and why, even as we plead of God, we can give thanks. For he has met all our needs already, and we have nothing to fear.