Be anxious about nothing, but in everything by prayer and by petition with thanksgivings, let your requests be made known to God;
Phil 4:6
μηδὲν μεριμνᾶτε, ἀλλ᾿ ἐν παντὶ τῇ προσευχῇ καὶ τῇ δεήσει μετὰ εὐχαριστίας τὰ αἰτήματα ὑμῶν γνωριζέσθω πρὸς τὸν Θεόν.
{no thing} {be anxious} but in everything the prayer and the petition with thanks the requests {of you} {make known} to the God.
Nothing worry about
but in everything
by prayer
by petition
with thanksgivings
your requests
make known
to God;
After giving you the two previous Gems on this one verse, I remembered that Rick Renner who I have told you about before had written about this in another different way. So I took his two volumes of readings and sought out his coverage of this verse. Rick sees it as a series of steps in sequence. So I figured I would share his perspective with you as well. You will see I have given you the same interlinearised Greek but have changed yet again the propositional analysis layout to fit Rick’s point of view.
Rick sees this verse as a sequential series of steps:
Five Important Steps to Move From Fear to Faith, From Turmoil to Peace and From Defeat to Victory
- Step One: Prayer
- Step Two: Supplication
- Step Three: Thanksgiving
- Step Four: Requests
- Step Five: Make known your requests in all these ways
I would recommend that you read again from Gem 1995 to 1996 in order to capture the sense of what is involved at each step. Rick sticks closely to the meaning of the Greek words we covered in the previous Gem. They are semantically arranged as nouns with their associated definite article. Many of us are used to the traditional way of approaching prayer by ACTS:
- Adoration
- Confession
- Thanksgiving
- Supplication
You may be wondering about how to do this. After all it seems to be just a list of kinds of prayer. How can you turn praying into a series of steps? Are you meaning Ian that we pray and then pray and pray and then pray some more? Well, essentially yes. But remember this is Rick Renner, who is recommending you do this. In my experience, after reading Rick’s two devotional books for a couple of years, he has some very good practical advice on the deeper things of the Christian life gleaned from the Word of God. I am sure you have realised by now that there are times when following Christ we face spiritual opposition and a quick prayer is not enough. Maybe that is why Paul told us to use every kind of prayer in the context of the armour of God in Ephesians 6. There are times when we worry that it is not normal fleeting worrisome thoughts. But rather it’s a kind of panic or extreme anxiety that sets in. Ah, that is the time to ramp up prayer and to pray with various kinds of prayer.
Go back over the detail of Proseuchē, Deēsis, Eucharistia and Aitēma from Gem 1996 to refresh your memory of what each of those Greek words stand for and how you can ramp up your prayer. Yes, I know you can think like I do sometimes, if God knows my thoughts before I think them, then why do I need to pray and pray over issues? I could just say, “LORD, you know exactly what I am going through. So LORD, I don’t need to tell you any more. Help!” While that is true, prayer is like talking to your best friend and you know how good that feels after unburdening yourself, you feel like you have been heard. How much more so with God? There are times that we have to pray over every aspect of the worry or anxiety we are feeling. This is a good way to do it. There are times when we worry that it is hard to shake that besetting thought that keeps coming back; so keep praying with every kind of prayer that you can think of. Remember too the more you pray, your emotion kicks in and it seems to increase the seriousness of your praying. At least it works that way for me.
As I move through these kinds of prayer expressed by these Greek words, when I start giving God thanks for the things He has done in the past, I find certain answers to prayer come to mind and I remember what He did in “that” situation and “that one” and “that”. The hupomimnesko work of the Holy Spirit begins and I am more than reassured that God has got this. I have written before in a Nugget about learning a new word in the middle of the night. Once again a Rick Renner Gem. I can tell you from repeated personal experience that the Holy Spirit’s prompts, bringing to mind experiences or passages of the Bible, is the best way possible to be reassured that God’s got this.
That very process of making your thoughts known to God, including your anxiety and concerns over why this issue or memory keeps coming back and troubling you is a powerful thing to talk about with God. He may well give you the key as to why this happens to you. Or He may point out why it is surfacing at the moment or why it is deeply rooted in your psyche. After all He is the one who knows you so well. Besides all that, as you know from the previous Gem, you can be as natural with the LORD as Charles or William are with Queen Elizabeth. Somehow I can’t imagine Charles being natural with anything. Use William as your example. Or keep in mind that you have been granted access to the Throne Room of God if you are child of God.
But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.
John 1:12
So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.
Hebrews 4:16
Have you got the message?
Now you have the right and you have the boldness to go into the very presence of God and tell Him what is troubling you.
I guarantee that you will come out worry free.
Groanings which cannot be uttered are often prayers which cannot be refused.
Your church ought to be prayer conditioned; so too should your life.
Jesus immersed His words and work in prayer. Powerful things happen when we do the same.
It just undoes the devil when he throws his very best at you and you just trust God and remain peaceful.
That last quote from Joyce Meyer is where we are heading next as we begin to look at what Paul has written in Philippians 4:7.