Dear God,
Paul Your faithful worker and evangelist wrote upon the subject of our title a number of times. To the Philippians 4: 4 “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say rejoice!” Verse 6, 7 “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
As with so many of the leaders of the early church after Jesus went back to heaven, Paul also suffered real privation, hardship and persecution. He could have been morbid and sorrowful, in such situations, but because he loved God, and trusted in Him, Paul knew his future was safe in God’s hands whilst in life and when death came to him. He believed the message of Jesus, Who taught that his body would also be safe in the care of God in death, as he awaited the call of his life giving Saviour, at His second coming. This faithful, valiant warrior in the cause of God could have this assurance, because he knew he had made his salvation sure in the merits of Christ, all through every day, and not because he had personally reached a higher plane due to his hard efforts.
God I am sorry for the times when I get side tracked by my own doings and thoughts, and then do not live up to the life and assurance Jesus wants me to have in Him. In reality Jesus is our Saviour and the restorer of things fractured or not as they should be. This is why Paul says ‘rejoice in the Lord always’, for He is always our solution. All we have to do is ask and have the faith to believe and we are restored in Him. Paul had found by experience there was no need to be anxious, for God delights not only in hearing our prayers, but in answering them. We are told also, we have no need to hang back, but to make our requests known to God with thanksgiving from a sincere humble heart. 1 John 5: 15 “And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we asked of Him.”
Please this day answer my sincere prayer to be filled with thanksgiving and rejoicing, knowing there is no need for a retained anxious thought.
Amen