Everything By Prayer

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Philippians 4:5b-7 (NRSV)

The Lord is near. 6 Do not worry 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.

Devotion:

            Paul, here is offering a list of commands he wants to impress upon his readers. He begins by the affirmation the God is near to us. How great a comfort we can find in these four little words. If we really believe that God is near to us, then we can do everything with confidence that the promise we heard at Christmas of Immanuel (God with us) is really true in our day to day lives regardless of the season of life we are currently experiencing. Living as if God is present with us always calms our fears and eases our anxiety.

            This leads us to the command to “not worry.” O how difficult we find it is to do this command of the Lord. It is very much human nature to worry and fret over many things. Some people even need medication to give their minds rest from constant and debilitating anxiety. Instead of worrying the Apostle proposes that we take everything to God in prayer, coming before the one who is near to us and desires us to ask of him what we feel we need. God honors such prayers.

            We are told that if we can do this. Really trusting in God’s nearness and steadfast love for us. We will be able to know the peace of God in our hearts and minds. This will give us confidence to live our lives boldly for him each day. These words are quite easy to say and exceedingly difficult for most of us to execute in our daily lives. That is why we need to be a praying people who consistently seek God’s assistance in our daily lives. We may not think that we always need God, but we should heed the hymn writer's admonition: “we need thee, every hour we need thee.”

            As we seek to follow the Lord more closely in this Lenten season let us resolve to always become more and more aware of your presence with us. Let us seek to pray without ceasing as difficult and unworkable we may believe that to be. The more we can accomplish these two things the more peace and assurance we will have in our daily lives. Let us pray to the Lord for the will and determination to live in this way.

Prayer:

            Lord, hear our cry to you today. Help us to be aware of your presence with us today. Father God calm our fears and our anxious thoughts by the awareness of your presence with us each moment. Help our tongues to pray to you as often as we can presenting our worries and concerns to you because you love and care for each of us so deeply. Help us to believe that we have everything we need by prayer. Amen. 

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