the Lord is near!

A couple of weeks ago, one of our pastors served my church family well by quoting the entire book of Philippians at our annual members meeting. In the midst of his quoting the Holy Spirit opened my eyes to see something I'd never seen before. And over the last couple of weeks, I can't count the number of times the Lord has brought this truth back to the forefront of my mind. So what is this truth? It is simply this: So many times we quote 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." It's a great verse that most of us have heard a million times. But I submit to you that if you took a poll asking folks what the verse preceding verse 6 in Philippians chapter 4 says, you would get a bunch of blank stares. We hardly ever quote verses 5 in conjunction with 6 despite the fact that they are separated by a semicolon (in the ESV). Now, I will be the first to admit that I'm not the best grammarian BUT I think I remember from high school English (Mrs. Minnis for all you WMHS grads!) that two thoughts separated by a semicolon implies that they are related in some way. So I think in the context of this verse, what gives verse 6 weight and your ability to not be anxious about things and the fact that our requests can be made known to God is precisely because of the end of verse 5: "The Lord is at hand." Or if you read the NASB, "The Lord is near." I love it! Christ is near to his children! So all together now:

"[5] ...The Lord is at hand; [6] do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. [7] And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." -Philippians 4:5-7

So, the constant reminder of the Holy Spirit over the past couple of weeks to my soul has been: Because the Lord is near, do NOT be anxious about anything and make all your requests known to God by prayer and supplication abounding with thanksgiving. The result: verse 7! Praise God for the reality that his risen Son sits enthroned at his right hand and is so near his children!