Philippians4:6,7
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
In this passage there is a whole philosophy of prayer.
1. Paul stresses that we can take everything to God in prayer. 'There is nothing too great for God's power; and nothing too small for his fatherly care.' A child may take anything, great or small, to a parent being sure of whatever happens to him will be to his gain. We may exactly the same way take anything to God.
2. We can bring our prayers, our supplications and our requests to God; we can pray for ourselves, We can pray for forgiveness for past, for the things we need in the present, and for help and guidance for the future. We can take our own past and present and future into the presence of God. We can pray for others. We can commend to God's care those near and far who are within our memories and our hearts.
3. Thanksgiving must be the universal accompaniment of prayer. Paul insists that we must give thanks in everything-in sorrows and in joys alike. That implies two things-gratitude and perfect submission to the will of God. It is only when we are fully convinced that God is working all things together for good that we can really feel to him the perfect gratitude which believing prayer demands.
When we pray, we must always remember three things.
1. We must remember the love of God, which desires only what, is best for us.
2. We must remember the wisdom of God, which alone knows what is best for us
3. We must remember the power of God, which alone can bring to pass that which is best for us.
He who prays with a perfect trust in the love, wisdom and power of God will find God's peace.
The result of believing prayer is that the peace of God will stand like a sentinel on guard upon our hearts. The word that Paul uses-phrourein is the military word for standing on guard. That peace of God passes all understanding. It means that the peace of God is so precious that man's mind, with all its skill and all its knowledge, can never produce it. It is only of God's giving. The way to peace is in prayer to entrust ourselves and all whom we hold dear to the loving hands of God.
By: Grace GeeVarghese