One verse I often pray is Philippians 4:6-7 (read more about praying Scripture here).
6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (NIV)
The verses specifically tell us we are not to be anxious about anything.
At it’s core, being anxious means we are worried about a situation and how to handle it. We are concerned it won’t turn out like it should or that there is no hope.
But look at the rest of that sentence:
“…by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”
In other words, when we are worried or upset about something we are to go to God and present our requests to Him. We do this by praying to Him.
We are to pray and ask God for what we need and for help with whatever the situation is.
We are to thank Him for His help and for considering our requests, trusting that He will move on the issue.
When we do this with an honest and humble heart, God responds by giving us His peace which guards our hearts and minds in Christ.
This is not just any peace. It’s a peace so wonderful it can’t even be understood.
It’s this peace we get when we trust God with our burdens that eliminates our anxiety.
It guards our hearts because we’ve chosen to trust God.
Some might say, “but He’s God. He already knows everything. Why doesn’t He just handle it?”
There are several reasons for that. Here are two:
1-He wants us to come to Him and ask because this improves our relationship with Him. By seeing Him respond to our requests, we see firsthand He does answer our prayers, which causes us to trust Him even more. This strengthens our faith and causes us to grow closer to Him. We are reminded that He is always there and that we can go to Him at any time.
2-He wants to remind us of Who He is. When we go to Him in prayer we are reminded that He is the One, True, Living God. He is the God who holds the world in His hands. By going to Him we are reminded of the proper order of things and that we were created for Him, not the other way around. This puts us back into proper alignment concerning authority and helps us to remember it is not about us, it is about Him.
It is this remembering who He is and putting Him in His proper place in our lives that allows us to live free of thinking we have to handle things ourselves, which is what causes the anxiety in the first place.
The next time you feel anxious, stop, pray, ask God to move on it, then thank Him for working in your life and your situation.
Then, trust and watch for Him to help you.
No, the situation might not always turn out the way you would like it to, but you can have the peace of knowing that God is working on it and that He will help you with it in a way only He can, and that whatever happens, He has His hand on it.
What situation will you prayerfully ask Him about today?
For further reading
“Come boldly unto the throne of God…” Hebrews 4:16 NIV
“We are His workmanship, created…” Ephesians 2:10 NIV
My post on How to Give Thanks
My followup post to this one: Philippians 4:6-7, Part 2