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. (7) And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."
Mothers always tell their children to "be careful". In the
times we are now living with the pandemic, children are telling their parents
to "be careful". This is always good advice for anyone, isn't
it? So now do we read Paul saying to just throw caution to the wind and
not to be careful? For reasons that I will not go into for this devotion, I
still prefer the King James Version of the Bible. I do admit that it takes some
extra time and energy to look up the word meanings, but what is that in
comparison to the time Jesus spent on earth and specifically on the cross for
me? With that being said, now we must ask the question: What does the
word, careful, mean in this passage?
First, be assured that Paul is not telling the Philippians, nor us, to throw
caution to the wind. The word, careful, carries the meaning of anxiety, or
being anxious about situations. Paul is telling us not to allow anxiety
to be the ruling factor in our lives. We saw that he lived by that truth when
he shared with us his peace concerning living or dying. Either way, he belongs
to Christ and He trusted Christ for all things. That would be exactly what he
is telling us now in this fourth chapter of Philippians.
It keeps our hearts and it keeps our minds where anxiety often roots out peace.
It is in our minds that we tend to allow the things of the world to settle and
then uproot the peace that is ours through Christ. We understand the Lord
already knows all of our problems and circumstances when Paul tells us to
"let our requests be made known unto God". So why is it important to
speak these requests unto the Lord? It is for our peace and our calmness to
know that we are actually laying them down before the Lord and asking for His
help. This is a pretty good trade, would you not think? We give the Lord our
anxieties and He gives to us His peace.
I'm not trying to improve upon the Word of God, but this is what I receive from
today's passage. Don't spend all your time fretting about something
that you have no control over. Instead, take it to the Lord and leave it there.
Be sure to give thanks unto the Lord for all the past blessings that He has
bestowed upon you. As you spend time giving thanks and remembering what God has
done, you will find anxiety flowing out and replaced with the peace of God that
goes beyond words and even understanding.
How does God do this? What is the channel through which this peace flows? I
submit to you that it can only come through the Prince of Peace. The One Who
now rules and reigns in His kingdom - the KING of kings and LORD of lords. His
name is Jesus the Christ of God. This peace is promised to us from God.