What is the meaning of Philippians 4:6?

How then can we find relief? How is it possible to "Be careful for nothing"? Very blessedly the Apostle unfolds the way to be free, not necessarily of the trial, but of the burden of the trial, so that it no longer weighs the spirit down with care and anxiety. He says, "In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God." Thus only shall we find relief. "In everything," whatever the trial may be, small or great, make it known to God in prayer; and tell God exactly what you wish, "let your requests be made known to Him." The requests may not be for our good, they may not be according to the mind of God; they may even be foolish, but we are to make them known to God.

What will be the result? Will He answer the requests? Will He remove the trial? He may see that to answer the request, or remove the trial would not be for our good. So far as the immediate trial is concerned, He will act in perfect wisdom for our good, according to His perfect love. But this God will do; He will relieve our hearts from the burden of the trial. If we pour out our hearts before Him, He will pour in His peace into our hearts — that peace of God which passes all understanding.

Second, “In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” “In everything.” This covers all the circumstances of our path. It takes in the greatest anxiety as well as the smallest detail. It embraces circumstances over which we have no control and those into which we have been brought by our own folly and sin. Now God’s government must stand. But even here a repentant child may bring his prayer and supplication, and obtain an answer of grace. We are encouraged to make known our requests to God. “Our requests.” We are to do it by prayer. Aye, and even if pressure is great and a request much desired, we are exhorted to supplication—something more intense and importunate than prayer.

Further, we are directed to let it all be “with thanksgiving”—thanks before the answer is given. Why? We may not always get our requests granted, but we shall always have an answer of wisdom and grace. The request may be granted, or modified, or altered, or refused. In each case love is equally at work with wisdom to give us an answer that suits us best. We may not think so. God knows best. And what will be the issue to those who are thus exercised? Rejoicing in the Lord but not in circumstances. Gentle to all men. “The Lord is at hand.” Resting in a sense of God’s tender care, making known our requests with thanksgiving.

And the way to cast all our care upon Him, so that we are anxious for nothing, is told us in this lovely verse in Philippians: "In every thing, by your prayer and by your supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God". Sometimes the load of care seems too heavy to cast it anywhere. Then the Lord invites us to "roll thy way upon the Lord" (Ps. 37:5: Margin). When we were children in Canada, in the winter, we would make great snowballs; and when they got too heavy to lift, we still could roll them. So roll that great load of care on Him, "because it is a matter of care to Him, concerning you," as the Greek so sweetly puts it. And in the Greek Testament two different words are used here for care. The one is "anxious, harassing care:" the other is God's loving "providential care" over us.*

We are not to be anxious about "one thing," as it is literally, but in "every thing" we are to let our requests be made known unto God: and you do this "by your prayer and by your supplication with thanksgiving." True, God knows all before we make them known: but He loves to have us come and tell Him. Actually it does not say "your prayer and your supplication," but "the prayer and the supplication". You may remember we have suggested that the Greek word "the" is like a finger pointing: and here we have two fingers, pointing to two different words. It is as though the Apostle was thinking: "by the prayer and by the supplication, which of course you will make". You recall how sometimes only one article (the) is used with two words, to link them closely together. Here we see just the opposite, twice the article is used, where we cannot use it at all, to point out the two separate acts when we come to God with our anxious, harassing cares. So we have substituted your for the "the" that we cannot use. And let us remember "every thing" means just what the word says: every single thing: the little things, as well as the big things: the things we are ashamed to bring to our Lord: in not one of these we are to be anxious: for every one is to be spread out before Him.

There are, I think, in the Greek New Testament (if we count "thanksgiving") seven different words for prayer: and we have four of them in our present verse. The first, translated "prayer", tells us of prayer in general, — of any address to God. The second, "supplication" tells of prayer for particular needs or benefits. The first is only used of prayer to God: the second may also be used towards our fellow-men. These two words are found together again in Eph. 6:18 and 1 Tim. 2:1; 5:5. The first may include worship, as we come to God in prayer; whereas the second is definitely what we want from God. And, let us not forget, for Paul never forgot, that all is to be with "thanksgiving". "Regarded as one manner of prayer, it (thanksgiving) expresses what ought never to be absent from any of our devotions (Phil. 4:6; Eph. 5:20; 1 Thess. 5:18; 1 Tim. 2:1); namely, the grateful acknowledgement of past mercies, as distinguished from the earnest seeking of future. As such it may, and will, subsist in heaven (Rev. 4:9; 7:12); will indeed be larger, deeper, fuller there than here: for only there will the redeemed know how much they owe to their Lord; and this it will do, while all other forms of prayer, in the very nature of things, will have ceased in the entire possession and present fruition of the things prayed for." (Trench: Synonyms, No. 51). And let us not forget, the Word commands: "In every thing give thanks." (1 Thess. 5:18).

Now (Phil. 4:4-5) he reverts to the exhortation with which he was going to close his epistle, only adding strength to it by the word "always." "Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, rejoice. Let your moderation [or rather yieldingness] be known unto all men." It is the opposite of standing on our supposed rights. The Lord is going to have His rights. He is at hand. It will be time enough for us to get ours when He gets His. Meanwhile, we can afford to yield. "Be careful for nothing." Ah! you say, there is just the thing I was listening for. My cares are the greatest hindrance to realising this life of blessed joy upon earth. But He says, "Be careful for nothing." But, you say, if you knew my circumstances, you would know that I could not but be careful for many things. The blessed God, He who says, "Be careful for nothing," knows your circumstances. But He does not leave you without a resource to carry you on rejoicing always, in spite of all that might suggest care. "In everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God." There is your resource, whether it be in trifles or in great things. What a wonderful resource it is, beloved friends. In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, and that not because of the expected blessing, but because we cannot draw near to God without thinking of the wonderful revelation He has given us of Himself in His beloved Son. "If he has not spared his own Son, but given him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things." And thus the heart knows it is all right and bows in thanksgiving at the same time, as you find relief in pressing all that was pressing on you on the heart of God, knowing now that it is well you should. With the result that "The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and thoughts [as it really is — often a very difficult part of us to manage] by Christ Jesus." He guarantees that if we only trust Him with our cares, He will put the peace in which He dwells Himself on the throne, where no breath of trouble ever came, into our hearts and thoughts. You say you cannot understand it. God has anticipated you, and tells us it passes all understanding. He does not expect you to understand it. Oh, beloved friends, only act upon it, only trust Him, and instead of carrying that load of care upon your heart all the hours of the day, carry all to Him. Put your care into His heart, and He guarantees that He will put His peace into yours. It does pass all understanding. You will be a wonder to yourself and to all who know you. How blessed it is to have had the hindrances looked at and owned, so far as that we are furnished with the resources that availed for the Lord's beloved servant, and are as good for us today, that we may ever realise this blessed life of divine and heavenly joy upon earth. It is His will for us. It is His command to us once more today "Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, rejoice."

No wonder that the apostle can now return to his final exhortation with redoubled force. (Phil. 4:4) "Rejoice in the Lord alway: again I say, Rejoice." But some one may think that the greatest hindrance of all to joy has been overlooked. What about care? One absolute word, "Be careful for nothing." "Ah!" says some one, "if you only knew my circumstances you would know that it was perfectly impossible for me to be without care." But does not He who inspired this word know every circumstance of yours, beloved brother or sister? It is God who says to you, "Be careful for nothing." And with the word He gives the resource to lift you above all that would have otherwise pressed on you for care, "in everything" — again how absolute — the merest trifle or what seems of the greatest concern; it is enough that it presses on you: "by prayer and supplication … let your requests be made known unto God." It is His will that we should lay before Him whatever it is that presses upon us. But I have omitted a clause, "with thanksgiving" — how important as to the state of the soul! giving thanks, not for the answer that we expect (He has something far greater than this for us), but because we know His love; we have the only gauge and measure of it, in that He has not spared His own Son but given Him up for us all, and we know that all is well, and can bow in thanksgiving. It is the normal expression of the Christian's confidence in the heart of God. And now comes the greater thing, "The peace of God shall keep your hearts and minds."

It is not the peace of Christ here, "my peace" that He gave us in John 14 — the peace of the Man who passed through my circumstances, the calm, unruffled peace of resting in the Father's love, and submitting in all things to Him. That is given us unconditionally. This is conditional, but the condition is only that we trust God with what would bring care, instead of carrying it as a burden ourselves. And it is the peace of God, of Him who sits on the throne where no breath of trouble ever came. He guarantees by His faithful word to put this peace, in all this its wonderful character, in the heart of the one who puts his cares into God's heart. Well, you say, I cannot understand it. Ah! God has anticipated you, for He says, "which passeth all understanding." We have then only to confide in Him as to anything that would suggest a care, to prove the blessedness of His peace keeping the heart and "thoughts" (as the word really is, often so difficult to regulate) in a way to make us a wonder to ourselves and to all who know us.