Be Anxious for Nothing

When my wife and I moved our family to Florida years ago, we kind of expected it to be our last stop. She is a military brat and I a foreign service brat, so we are used to moving, but we had hopes to set down roots somewhere. We found our little home here and thought this was it. Well, in God’s providence, the best laid plans of mice and men are just that, plans only. In September of last year I lost my job. The company I was working for pulled the plug on operations. It was a screeching halt. We were notified on the second to last Friday of the month of September and told we had to be out of the building by the following Friday. I received a two week severance.

It was a pretty big surprise. We had just signed a contract to have our first floor bathroom remodeled. The day it was completed was the day we received the notification of closure. We still have seven kids in the home, (our oldest and her husband live on the other side of the state with their two kids), and bills… well I won’t go into details, but you can imagine the bills a household of nine must have. My Pastor made the comment that unemployment often follows this pattern, for each year you have been employed, you will be unemployed for the same number of months. I had been with my prior company for 23 years. Whoa, this is could be a long, hard, experience. In this moment, I turned to scripture:

⁶ Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; ⁷ and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7

My wife and I are very in tune with this passage, I mean, 8 kids right? I will add that we are both still fallible humans, but we understand that this kind of moment is part of what Paul is teaching us about here in this passage. The word used here for anxiety has a number of meanings, but in context it means an anxiety that is incompatible with trust in God. You see God is the author of all things, and He has fulfilled all of His promises of the past, and will finish all those of the future. The psalmist echoes Paul’s writing here, or more accurately perhaps, Paul echoes the psalmist:

Cast your burden on the LORD,
And He shall sustain you;
He shall never permit the righteous to be moved. Psalms 55:22

My wife likes to say “prepare for rain.” The comment comes from a modern parable if you will, it’s a scene from the movie “Facing the Giants.” The character, Mr. Bridges, is talking to the protagonist of the film, Coach Taylor. In the exchange, Bridges shares this, “There were two farmers who desperately needed rain.  Both prayed for rain but only one of them went out and prepared his fields to receive it.”  Bridges then asks, “which one do you think trusted God to send the rain?”  Coach Taylor responds, “Well, the one who prepared his fields for it.”  The lesson is, God will send the rain when He is ready.  It’s your job to prepare your field to receive it. Our anxiety is a result of our lack of trust, or faith, in the reality that God will provide. If we truly trust that He is, we should fear nothing.

The next part of the teaching is “but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.” I always ask the young people in my youth group if this says, “in only the good things?” Or how about, “in only the bad things?” The answer of course is always no. In everything, by prayer, which the context here is earnest prayer, not flippant prayer, and supplication, with thanksgiving, we let our requests be made known to Him. Isn’t it interesting that thanksgiving is added there to the mix. The Greek word there is “eucharistia;” if you have some understanding of the church and church history, then that word should have special meaning. The eucharist is the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, where we as believers come to the table to be visibly reminded of the total and complete work of Christ on the Cross. His body broken, His blood shed, for us. The Greek word “kharis,” or grace, is also part of the etymology of “eucharistia.” An implication towards the Grace of God in all things perhaps? Our thanksgiving is given in mind of God’s fulfilled providence.

The certainty of that is without question. In Romans 5:1 Paul says this, “having been justified by faith…” It’s not that we hope to be justified, or wish that we will be justified. We already “have been.” As we pray and make our requests known, it’s with that full understanding of the complete work of God. WE HAVE BEEN justified by faith. Even in this hard moment, God’s promises have been fulfilled. Our citizenship is not here, it is in heaven, the promise is secure. What happens in the here and now is of little concern with God on our side. If God be for us, who can be against us?

That knowledge and understanding, should engender peace, or the absence of anxiety. I am writing another post on the peace of God, but the long and short of it is, through Christ we are no longer condemned for our sins. Through this we have peace with God. I like to read the word here as “quietness,” but it can mean concord, harmony, or peace between two persons. It means this, the finished work of Christ has ended the hostility that existed between a righteous and Holy God, and this sinful, rebellious sinner. That peace, which surpasses all understanding, keeps me enveloped in hope of things to come. I do not need to worry, because God is, and will be, forever, The Lord God Almighty. I quoted from Romans 8:31 earlier. He is for us, nothing can be against us. And as the psalmist says “He shall sustain you.”

I guess the question there is, do you really trust that He is for you? When I lost my job, my wife and I prayed as Paul notes above. We trusted God to provide. He has. Even though I no longer have full time employment, things have fallen into place that have never left us in want, or need. Sure, I have some bad days, and so I return to scripture for that reminder. And with reach reminder, I see that He has sustained us. He has always kept His Word. It fills me with a quietness that is hard to describe. For those of you who know me in person, yes, it happens.

So, we have continued to prepare for rain, trusting that God will provide. This past January I was offered a full time position back in my home state of Virginia. Without going into to detail, it sings loudly of God’s sustenance. It’s a big life moment, for us and for our children. As we prepare to move to a new location and new home, we will trust in the Lord, and fear no danger. I pray that you do the same in all things.

May this writing Glorify God.