What an amazing statement! But it is in the Bible – and it is meant for you and me. The apostle Paul wrote: ‘Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, 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 minds in Christ Jesus’ (Phil. 4:6–7). When he wrote this, Paul was in prison, in chains and facing a very uncertain future, most likely execution. Yet he surely knew the peace that he was encouraging us all to experience in Christ, and his words have resounded down the centuries. They are as real today as they were when they were written, 2,000 years ago. And they are still real, even in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
How many of us can truly say that we experience an anxiety-free life? All the time? Ever? Are there ‘compartments’ in our lives that are (relatively) free of worry and others where we are more vulnerable? Are there times in our lives when we worry much more than we do at others? And are there long-term anxieties that we never, ever seem able to deal with successfully?
I’m sure that we can all identify to some extent with these questions, and for some of us knowing how to handle persistent, recurrent fears is a lifelong battle. Now add to that the feelings of guilt that come with knowing we should be trusting God, but are ‘failing’ as Christians, and the results can feel overwhelming. But let’s not stop there – instead we need to take seriously what God is promising us through the very real experience of Paul and all the hardships he went through, not only physical, but also mental and emotional.
One of the key things that comes through these verses is the encouragement to thank God as we come to Him. In this same letter, Paul has already urged us to ‘Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near’ (Phil. 4:4–5). He then brings us that extraordinary promise of God’s transcendent peace if only we will bring all our anxieties and worries to Him. He tells us we should not be anxious about anything! And that means our everyday lives, our families, our friends, our church, our jobs, finances, health, our nation, our world – we can come to God with our concerns about absolutely anything and everything.
One thing Paul doesn’t say is that God will wave a magic wand and make the problem that’s causing us to worry go away. What He does give us is a deep sense of peace that we simply cannot understand, and this peace is firmly grounded in Jesus Christ. If we know Jesus and have given our lives to Him we too can know this indescribable peace as we begin to leave our worries in His hands. This is an ongoing process – it doesn’t all happen in one go! I am certainly still learning, but let me share an experience I had many years ago, something which is still very fresh in my mind.
When I got married and moved to live in Hendon as a young Christian, I had to travel in and out of work by tube. I found this really difficult as I would get extremely claustrophobic whenever the train stopped in the tunnel outside a station. It made me feel pretty panicky, especially if it was a long wait. However, if I was with someone I knew that made things much easier somehow. I had a friend at work called David, and he was a Christian. Sometimes we would happen to see each other on the station (he also lived in Hendon) and if he was with me in the tube that made things a lot easier. So I would really hope to meet David every evening, although we couldn’t easily arrange to do so as he worked on site and I was based in the museum (we are both archaeologists). In fact I would actively pray that God would bring him along at the same time I was heading home.
One evening, as I was walking from work to the station, I was asking God earnestly that He would let me meet David before I had to get on the train. And God said to me so distinctly that it made me stop in my tracks, ‘You don’t need him, you’ve got Me’! It was as close to hearing an audible voice as I’ve ever experienced in prayer. I know that the Lord met with me there and then as I was walking along London Wall to Moorgate Station, and from that time on, my feelings of anxiety when the train stopped in the tunnel disappeared completely, never to reappear again. In fact I hardly even noticed when the driver had to make the usual stop at the interchange outside Camden Town, and whenever I did register that we were waiting behind another train I felt completely calm and relaxed. God did something very special for me that day – He gave me a peace that certainly passed my understanding. He didn’t answer my prayer to bring my friend along – which would have been a very temporary answer to a prayer that would inevitably have needed to be repeated again and again. He gave me much, much more than that – He gave me a peace that has continued to guard my heart and my mind in Christ Jesus for all the countless times I have travelled on the underground since then.
I wish I could say that I don’t ever have any other anxieties. I do – we all do – but I know that our heavenly Father cares very deeply about every single aspect of our lives and that He wants us to come to Him daily with our requests, in prayer and petition, with thanksgiving. And His promise of that peace that transcends all understanding is for all those who have given their lives to Jesus. If you don’t yet know Jesus for yourself, then why wait? Jesus came to this earth, both fully God and fully human, and died on the cross to make it possible for you to know God as your Father, by taking into Himself all the wrong things you have done in your life, all the bad things you’ve thought and said and done. He has taken the rightful punishment for all that, and through His resurrection he defeated death once for all, so that we can know real peace with God, and experience life in all its fullness, both now and after we die. Why put it off? Ask God to forgive you now and give your life to Him, and you too can enter into a new life of endless possibilities. You too can know God’s hope and peace – in spite what life throws at us!