For this series in Philippians, I am going to limit each post to one verse, and hopefully produce a short, succinct read for my friends who follow.

4:6   do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

As a believer, I assume those of like minded faith have found the value of memorizing portions of Scripture. To have passages of Scripture available for the Spirit to bring to mind at instantaneous moments of decision making is an invaluable blessing and resource. I mention Bible memorization as this particular verse is one of the very first I committed to memory, and have found it to be a verse that I come back to so often, for I am an anxious fella.

To be anxious is to be troubled with cares, and often associates itself with those things that are directly connected with one’s own interests. That may seem obvious, but saying it out loud seems to make the action of being anxious just a little bit more foolish.

Yet I worry, fret, care about and am troubled by many things that will, in the end either not come to pass, or if they do, will not be of the concern that I feared.

My anxiousness belies a core problem in my heart. Can anyone suggest what that problem may be from our text? I can suggest two problems in a persons life that is riddled with anxiousness.

Lack of Prayer

Paul provides the first problem, or should I say the first solution to an anxious life. Prayer and supplication. The addition of the term “supplication” implies a need that has to be requested for, a time of asking, of requesting. Prayer itself is the more general term of our communicating (and communing ) with God. Supplication adds to this passage an aspect of need, of a humbleness of knowing that we are not “all that”.

Our realization of our need in our prayers may be our greatest need! That our needs are not simply a grocery list of wants that we speak out repeatedly, but a heart issue that makes the spirit waken, that reaches out with a passion at times, begging for an answer. I think of David’s prayers in the book of Psalms, and of his emotional phrases he approaches God with.

One of my favorite passages, when I think of David’s prayers, is found in psalm 5. I especially like the way the Message delivers David’s cry out to God.

Psalm 5:1-3

Listen, God! Please, pay attention!
Can you make sense of these ramblings, my groans and cries?
King-God, I need your help.
Every morning you’ll hear me at it again.
Every morning I lay out the pieces of my life on your altar and watch for fire to descend.

He was going to “wake up” God if he had to, and he wouldn’t give up.

How passionate have you been with the Lord lately? Does He know what you care about, or that you just have cares?

Complaining Spirit

One of the most crippling spiritual diseases I have been a victim to is being a victim, living a life of complaint and comparison with others. What a slavish, horrible existence, for just when you think you have a leg up on someone, another person seems to have a better life than yours.

Of course, with a complaining spirit, there is no need to address God in prayer, for it is a foregone conclusion that He will not do anything for you. You are trapped in a life of lack, an existence that sees scarcity and shortcomings. What a life!

Yet with an attitude adjustment, in the very same conditions, that life can become one of joy and fruitfulness, if a thankful spirit is exercised. This is a choice for the most part and with the Spirit of God residing in us, pleading with us to rise up out of a victim mentality and able to provide the strength to be a thankful believer, life can instantly be one worth living.

Thankfulness is a fantastic attitude to exercise, for it spreads good feelings and creates feeds the good attitude as it grows in my heart. A thankful spirit is a victorious spirit, and makes trials and troubles so much easier to bear. Trials and troubles will come, but why take them on without a thankful spirit?

Earlier, I mentioned that anxiousness is a choice and one of the two verses I think of when it comes to anxiousness, besides our verse this morning, is in Matthew 6

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?
28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin,

Jesus questions why we are anxious. The very questions create the space where we should realize how foolish these concerns and cares are. Do not be anxious.

Instead of being anxious,

seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Prayer and thankfulness can and will replace an anxious life, but it is a choice that we need to exercise on a daily basis.

May the Lord bless you as you seek Him and His righteousness.

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