Holy Week 2020 - Wednesday Devotinal

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.

Stop constantly worrying about anything at all. This is literally written as a command and not as a way of suggesting a better way to live. Apparently the Philippian church was in the constant habit of worrying about everything, so Paul has to correct that issue here. So the remedy for the problem of constant worry is believing prayer to God.

Prayer - prayer directed to God in a worshipful way

Supplications - refers to the things we need

Requests - The things we want

If believing prayer is practiced in place of constant worry then the outcome will be that God’s peace which is beyond the power to make sense of will be upon them in such a powerful way that it will set a guard over their hearts and minds because they are those who belong to Christ Jesus who’s very citizenship is heaven itself!

That is powerful!!!!!!

Here’s how a couple other versions render these verses.

Philippians 4:6–7 (WUESTNT)

Stop worrying about even one thing, but in everything by prayer whose essence is that of worship and devotion and by supplication which is a cry for your personal needs, with thanksgiving let your requests for the things asked for be made known in the presence of God, and the peace of God which surpasses all power of comprehension shall mount guard over your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:6–7 (CSB)

6 Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

This confidence in God produces gladness in our hearts as we receive His peace in our hearts and minds!

We also see in Proverbs which is the book of wisdom...

Proverbs 15:13 ESV

13 A glad heart makes a cheerful face, but by sorrow of heart the spirit is crushed.

Proverbs 17:22 ESV

22 A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

So you see we can have a different perspective in uncertain times. We don’t need to be anxious, we need to be trusting in God and in His great love for us.

Proverbs 12:25 ESV

25 Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad.

What’s the good word that we need to be glad?

John 3:16–17 ESV

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

1 John 4:7–11 ESV

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

Now encourage someone with a good word because they need it lest they grow anxious and depressed during these times.

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