Uncommen: God GoalsSample

Pray More / Listen Well

Philippians 4:6 "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God."

I love this verse because it hits right where many of us live in dealing with anxiety and worry in our lives. If anyone tells you they don't worry, they are lying to you and themselves as everyone worries about something. The mere fact that the Bible talks so much about worry tells you that God knows we do.

In today's world where we spin everything and make everyone think life is always great, we are not doing ourselves any favors. Our verse says, "let your requests be made known to God." If we are so busy trying to convince ourselves and others everything is ok, we miss God's blessing for our lives.

We are human, and we are not in control of much. When it comes down to it, we are not in control of anything. But we struggle, nonetheless, over things we should simply lay at the foot of the cross.

• Money
• Success
• Opinion of others
• Health
• Safety
• Loneliness
• Love
• Family
• Friends
• Relationships
• Abandonment
• Culture
• and much, much more

Our verse tells us "not to be anxious about anything," and that may not compute as a human. I consider myself a realist at heart, so I don't get sky-high or down low on life but try to see things as they are. To put that in perspective, I don't see the glass half full or half empty but rather simply a glass of water. If I had to lean one way or the other, it's toward half full. But I still worry about some things in life.

Our next section says to be in "prayer and supplication with thanksgiving," which we must expand on to understand. The word supplication means the action of asking or begging for something earnestly or humbly. Most of us understand "prayer" because it's where we go over our laundry list of things we want God to do for us. But our verse focuses on our communication with God with the words supplication and thanksgiving. We may need to adjust our hearts as we approach God about what we are worried about in our lives.

Things are probably not as bad as we think they are as I've heard it said, 93% of what we worry about never happens.

Uncommen Questions:

Are you honest with yourself with it comes to being anxious?

Do you take those worries to God in prayer and supplication with thanksgiving?

Uncommen Challenge:

I challenge all of us to put our anxiety in check. Recognize that we worry, and that's not unmanly. Take those concerns to God in prayer and supplication with thanksgiving and listen well.