“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God.” (Phil 4:5 KJV)

I’m not sure when I was first able to recite this scripture by heart. Perhaps it became embedded in my memory, because I had heard it so often recited and referred to by others throughout my life. It’s those first four words, though, that I was pondering the other day:

Be anxious for nothing!

With everything going on in our world, it is easy to become anxious. From the isolation and apprehension we have experienced during the Corona-19 pandemic to the heart-wrenching realization that the hopes of racial equality that the 1964 Civil Rights Act was to accomplish have been dashed over and over again leaving death, disillusionment, and anger in its wake.

If the sentence had stopped with just those four words, it would be an imperative statement, commanding us to not let anything make us anxious. How impossible that would be! But Paul didn’t stop these words with a period, he continued with a “but” that tells us “how” we are to deal with our anxiousness.

“. . . but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving make your requests known to God.” (Phil. 4:6)

When the heavy hand of anxiety weighs upon us, Paul instructs us to pray and to make supplication (a humble request) to God with an attitude of thankfulness. This scripture gives us permission, even the directive, that when life is turned upside down, turn to the One who can turn it right-side up.

And that “right-side upping” begins within us—as we pray! Because praying about “everything” is not just about seeking an answer to all our needs. First and foremost it’s about being in the presence of God. Even when I can’t see the “when” or “how” my prayers will be answered, the times of personal prayer place me in God’s presence.

Prayer engages us with the One whose presence gives us peace. In His presence, He turns our emotions “right-side up.” He replaces our panic, our fears, our apprehension with peace, because in His presence I’m reminded that my God is bigger than my problems, even the world’s problems. When I pray, I am reminded that His sovereignty over all can cause beauty to rise from the ashes of our messes and mistakes.

So when you become anxious, pray, not just so your requests, your supplications may be answered. Pray so that your anxious heart can be calmed by His presence of peace.