Philippians 4:6 - 7

“do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7 ESV). Looking back to the end of chapter 3 we find the context of our verse, which is, straining toward the goal of becoming like Jesus Christ. As we push forward to what lies ahead, pressing on toward the goal for prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus we, may become anxious over our progress. In this context our anxiety is in relationship to our progress in spiritual growth. When was the last time you were anxious over your spiritual growth? Today we are more concerned about worldliness than we are spirituality and as a result we are anxious about different kinds of things than we would be if we were truly living for Christ.

When we experience anxiety and look to these verses for help you will find the context to be important. If you are striving for spiritual growth it would be natural to come to the Lord in prayer and supplication, sharing with him some difficulty or trouble you are experiencing along the way. However, if you are better friends with the world than you are with the Lord, you will probably not find these verses very effective and will tend to look for an alternate solution like medication or a set of counseling steps to help you overcome your discomfort.

If we are perusing righteousness we are probably experiencing some opposition causing us to be anxious. Part of that righteous living is prayer and supplication with thanksgiving to replace any anxiety, that tries to derail us, with the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, which will guard our hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. These verses are a beautiful fit in their context, but seem a bit out of place in our worldly lifestyle.

Prayer

Father, there are so few churches or even Bible studies that preach or teach verse by verse through books of the Bible. When we add to this the use of devotionals, which usually list a verse or two and then write a thought that is somewhat related, we lose any sense of context in which the verses being used are found in. Father, as a result, I find that most Christians don't have a very good understanding of the Bible. They have little knowledge of its overall unity. What Scripture they do know has been interpreted to fit into our western culture, providing in many cases an interpretation that does not express the context in which it was written. When I write these short verse studies and consider the context in which the verses were written, I am amazed at how far our interpretation and thus application has gotten off track. Father, the western church needs to invest in some serious Bible preaching and teaching.