“4Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. 5Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” – Philippians 4:4-7 (ESV)
Seems simple enough. Pray to the LORD and allow Him to take away the anxiety. Give your troubles to Him and He will relieve the stress of the situation. Just talking with God will allow you to speak to what ails you and He will comfort you. It does seem simple enough.
But, is it. Well, yes it is. The LORD is here to guard us and protect us and comfort us. He is our Father in heaven and only wants what is best for us, and even will work to relieve the anxiety we have developed.
The thing is, yes here it is, God will remove the anxiety, we are responsible for truly giving it to Him. It is one thing to make the statement that we have given it to God to work through for us and then it is something else to actually allow Him to do His work.
Supplication: to make a humble entreaty, to ask humble and earnestly of, to ask for earnestly and humbly – Merriam-Webster Online
Paul uses the word “supplication” here as well as in other letters. What a lovely word for us to remember when we are praying to the LORD to take away our anxiety and take things over for us. It is truly about the earnest and humble plea to the LORD where He will do His work. Not that He would not work for us without it, just that with supplication of our prayers, it is from our heart and fully understood that we are not able to do it alone or simply without the help from our Father.
I title this writing, “reduce anxiety with prayer” to indicate that all that we are anxious about, does not have to be. There are things that are fully out of our control and can/will be handled by others. God is those others. I have to remember to supplicate and pray to the LORD and allow Him to take these things from me and work them to His glory and plan. When I do, I will find it refreshing to get on with the rest of things in the name of the LORD.
What things are you giving to the LORD? Are you giving them to Him in just your words? What if you were to supplicate and pray to the LORD and give all to Him from your heart to remove the anxiety?
Trevor's Thoughts 