In Philippians 4:6 the very mention by Paul of being “anxious for nothing” suggests that he understands that people have a proclivity to worry and anxiety. The reason we ought to be anxious for nothing, is because in everything we are making are requests known to God!
The use of the word “everything” by Paul suggests that there is nothing too small to God because there is nothing to God that looks BIG! Prayer is our expression of our complete dependence upon His promises, our leaning upon His grace and power is already at work within our lives.
You could say humans after the fall were born worriers! Yet with that said Paul doesn’t serve up the platitude of “Ah just pray about it.” Instead Paul uses three different words to illustrate right communication! Anxiety and worry are not best served by bottling them up; no they are best defeated by right communication. And right communication has three aspects to it:
• Adoration: The first thing we see in right communication is that it needs to be directed to the right person if you are going to defeat anxiety and worry. Not only does our communication need to be to the right person (God) but this word carries with it the idea of communication adoration, devotion and worship.
• Supplication: The second aspect of our communication is the honest sharing of our worry and anxiety. And it carries with it the idea of continuance, keeping it up over and over. You would think this is obvious but a lot of the time folks spend all their time telling God what to do instead of telling God where they are at. In Genesis 3:9 immediately after Adam and Eve disobeyed, the first question God asks them is “Where are you”?
God doesn’t require from us the knowledge of how to fix the problem He requires from us the honesty to admit we have a problem that only He can fix!
• Appreciation: The final aspect of right communication is thanksgiving, but it isn’t about God hearing a thank you after we have been given what we have asked for. No, the thank you comes before we have seen or heard the answer because it has already found the answer in the Lord! Again most of the time we come to the Lord with our shopping list and a stop watch and both of those have to come out towards our expectation before we offer (if we even do) a thank you.
The right communication that Paul is suggesting is long on worship, confession and thanksgiving but missing telling God what the problem is and what to do to fix it to our expectations.