Paul tells the church he planted in Philippi not to be anxious about anything (Phil 4:6). He has actually used the same word earlier in Philippians to talk about Timothy, saying, ‘I have no-one else like him, who will show genuine concern for your welfare’ (Phil 2:20, emphasis added). Clearly then, there is a place for genuine concern, but Paul says that we don’t need to live with the unhealthy anxieties we so often carry.

One commentator, speaking of the Philippian situation, says that anxiety here is ‘the attempt to carry the burden of the future oneself’.

Paul is adamant we don’t have to have this anxiety. Jesus Christ has changed everything about who were are—our identity is now in him—and he wants to partner with us in our day-to-day lives. Phil 4:6 tells us we are therefore to take requests to him, but we are to do so in a spirit of thanksgiving—being thankful for who God is and his abundant goodness, including past answered prayers!

Not only this but we are to do so in community. When it says ‘your requests’, the your is plural. We are to let others help carry the burden and help us as we take our concerns to God. We have to tell someone if we are ever going to stop trying to carry the burden of the future alone!

Paul doesn’t actually say here that God will grant our requests. Instead he says that the fruit of taking our requests to God, with thanksgiving and in community, is that we will have the peace of God—a peace that gets past our fallen way of viewing the world—which will protect our hearts and minds from the anxiety that so often grips us.

Paul wasn’t downplaying their situation, but he knew that in the middle of what they were going through they could find peace.

The peace of God that transcends all understanding…isn’t that a better offer than the anxiety we so often carry?

Andy.