50 Days of Prayer for Fellowship CRC
Phil. 4:6, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”
As the young church in Philippi read these words from the Apostle Paul, no doubt the incidents from the early days of that young church were on their minds. Paul and Silas had discerned through a vision that they should go to this city—amazing! They soon met a faithful woman named Lydia who showed them great hospitality—thank you God! An existing prayer group formed the nucleus of a new church—fantastic! And then Paul and Silas were thrown in prison, stripped, beaten severely with rods—what???? Paul and Silas respond, we are told, by staying awake, praying and singing loud enough for everyone else in the prison to hear them—beautiful!
You can read the rest of the story in Acts 16. The point for us is clear. When Paul wrote the words of Phil. 4:6 to these young Christians, he was not speaking as one without experience. He knew that they knew that Paul lived these words. You can read some other anxiety-producing moments from Paul’s life in 2 Corinthians 11:22-29. Yet Paul’s exemplary response was to take it to the Lord in prayer. Prayer was the life-sustaining difference of Paul’s life and ministry.
The Bible is not oblivious to anxiety-producing situations. They will come; “fears within and foes without,” it says. When they come, pray. I will not promise that the situation will disappear, or how God will answer your prayer. I can just promise you that God will answer your prayer and see you through it, around it, or out of it, in the way the He knows his best.
So we pray,
Father God, you are good. But some of our situations are not good, and they make us very anxious. We give them to you now, and by your grace ask that you would help us to patiently keep waiting and praying as you answer our prayers for these anxiety-producing situations. For you know us best, you know what we need, and you will faithfully provide for us. Amen.