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Welcome to day two of our look through Philippians chapter four. We're looking
at verses six to seven today. These are verses that are about joy in your
thoughts.

Yesterday we talked about how to deal with your anger. These verses, verses six
and seven of Philippians chapter four are about how to deal with your anxiety.
Would you agree that worry steals joy from our thoughts?

No doubt about it. So how do you abolish anxiety? How do you deal with worry?

The Greek word worry that's used in these verses in the New Testament has the
idea of being pulled in a lot of different directions. And as the Bible talks
about worry, in verse six, the very first phrase, Paul says, "Do not be anxious
about anything. " He begins by saying, "Nothing is worthy of my anxiety.

" Nothing. Now we could argue that just from a logical standpoint. Studies have
been done.

Dr. Walter Calvert did a study that found out that only 8% of what we worry
about is of any legitimate concern. The other 90% is imagined.

It never happens or it's completely out of reach. Just logically, the things
that we worry about aren't going to happen most of them. E.

Stanley Jones said, "To live by worry is to live against reality. It's to live
against the reality of the fact that life is determined by God's promise, not by
our worries. " And you've probably heard the phrase, "Worry is wasting today's
time to clutter up tomorrow's opportunities with yesterday's troubles.

" I could share these phrases with you. I could share these statistics with you.
And the truth of the matter is, you might even be fully convinced of the logic
of what I'm saying, but it won't do a bit of good in your struggle with worry.

In fact, it might even add to your worries. Now all of a sudden you think, "Oh,
I shouldn't be worrying. " And you start worrying about the fact that you're
worrying.

Now why doesn't this work? Why can't we logic our way, if I can say it in that
way, out of worry? Because worry is not a logical reaction.

It is a spiritual reaction. I feel out of control. I don't know what's coming.

I want to control my world. I feel small. And so I worry.

Because it's a spiritual reaction, we need a spiritual answer. So listen to
verses 6 and 7 of Philippians chapter 4, "Do not be anxious about anything but
in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your request to
God and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your
hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Determine that nothing is worthy of my
anxiety and determine that everything is worthy of my prayers.

" Everything. Everything that you worry about is worthy of your prayers.
Everything that you don't worry about is worthy of your prayers.

We need more than just telling ourselves not to worry. We need a practical way
to attack worry, to abolish anxiety. Prayer is the practical means we have at
our disposal for attacking and defeating worry.

A life without prayer is a life without joy. Now let me just ask a question. If
this is true, why doesn't prayer always defeat worry?

You think, "Oh, I prayed about it. I'm still worrying about it. " One of the
reasons is, I think the major reason is, we don't follow the directions.

If I tell you, you take two aspirin and it'll take care of your headache, but
you take those two aspirin and you dissolve them in your bath water and you
think that's going to take care of it, or you take those two aspirin and you put
them under your pillow as you sleep at night and think, "Well, I took two
aspirin and did something with it. " You didn't follow the directions. You got
to swallow the aspirin.

So how do you pray in such a way that it really begins to defeat worry in your
life? The prayer that defeats worry is an attitude of life. It's not just an
emergency cry for help.

God helps us when we cry out, no doubt about that, but then we keep on worrying.
How do I pray in such a way that it begins to defeat worry once and for all in
my life? Well, let's just walk through these verses.

It talks about what to pray about, talks about how to pray, and it talks about
the attitude that we pray with. First, what do I pray about? Pretty simple.

Everything. Everything. In everything by prayer and petition, you let your
requests be made known to God.

It's interesting, as you grow in your faith, how we begin to pray about more and
more and more and more important things in our lives. Before you're a believer,
oftentimes you pray about nothing, or if you pray about anything at all, you
pray about only the big crisis of life. Once you become a believer, then you
begin to move up in what I would call the prayer scale, and you begin to pray
not only about the big crisis moments, but also about the big decisions.

And then a little bit of growth comes into your life, and you begin to pray also
about your needs and say, "Well, the Bible says I should talk to God about my
needs. Let me talk to Him about those, too. " As you continue to grow in
learning how to pray, then you begin to talk to God about your friends' needs,
the needs of other people that are around you.

And you realize, "I shouldn't be just talking to God about me. How about other
people? " And then your eyes even go broader, and you begin to talk to God about
worldwide needs.

And then as you continue to grow in prayer, you begin to talk to God about plans
and goals. What's the future all about? Not just the decision I have to make,
but who am I going to be and how am I going to live out God's plan for my life?

And then as you continue to pray, you begin to pray about God's purposes. You
read the prayers of the apostle Paul in the New Testament. They are prayers that
are by and large about God's purposes and God's plans and goals.

He had a mature prayer life. He had learned to pray, as he talks in these
verses, about everything. One of the reasons I continue to worry and you
continue to worry even though we pray is we never move up that scale.

We only pray when the big crisis comes. We only pray when the anxiety comes or
the big decision is in front of us. As I begin to move up that scale and begin
to pray about everything in my life, then worry is defeated.

I have to say, I am embarrassed to say how often I forget to pray. I just jump
into what I'm doing. It may even be what God wants me to do, but I just jump in
and then I keep going and then I wonder why I have anxiety about it.

Talk to God about everything. Take the time to talk to Him. What to pray about?

Everything. That's the direction that's in these verses. How do I pray?

Well, he says, here's how you do it. You do it by prayer and supplication with
thanksgiving. Let me attach three words to that, prayer, supplication, and
thanksgiving.

Let me attach the words adoration, supplication, and appreciation. Prayer,
adoration, that's talking to God about God, who He is. When's the last time you
did that?

Not just about your problems or your needs, but God, thank you that you're God.
Thank you that you're great. Adoration is making practical requests, telling God
what you need, telling God what's on your heart.

And appreciation is telling God thank you. Healthy prayer has all three of those
attributes. And one of the reasons prayer doesn't "work" to defeat worry in our
lives is because we only make requests to God.

We never take the time to tell Him we praise Him, we are grateful for who He is,
and we never tell Him thank you. And because of that, we continue to worry. So
add those two other things to your prayer life and watch what happens.

Now, you can do them all at once. You can say to God, "God, you are a great God,
but I'm having a terrible day and I need your help. Now, I thank you for what
you did in my life yesterday, but I need your help today.

" You can pray about them all at once. In fact, as you walk through the end of
this verse, it talks about the attitude that you pray with. With adoration, with
supplication, with appreciation, He says you simply make requests to God.

Present your request to God. Don't make demands on God. Don't beg for the
attention of God.

Don't excuse away the power of God. Sometimes when people pray, they say, "Well,
God, I know you really don't want to do this or you probably don't care about
this. " Don't excuse away the power or the care of God.

Don't give little suggestions or hints to God. Make requests to God in His
presence. You make a request to the one who loves you the most.

R. A. Torrey once said, "Prayer is the hand that takes to ourselves the blessing
that God has already provided in His Son.

" And A. C. Dixon said this famous phrase about prayer, "When we rely upon
organization, we get what organization can do.

When we rely upon education, we get what education can do. When we rely upon
eloquence, we get what eloquence can do. But when we rely upon prayer, we get
what God can do.

" Now, let me be clear about this. It doesn't mean that God doesn't want to use
organization in our lives or that education isn't a good thing. It is what we
are relying on that's important.

When we rely on God, we lean on Him through prayer. He will use whatever
organization and education and everything else that's in your life. He'll use
everything we make available to Him.

But He doesn't want us to rely on anything, anyone but Him. And then the
promise. If I'll do that, if I'll follow these simple directions for prayer in
these verses, then God's peace will guard my heart and my mind in Christ Jesus.

Now, remember, when Paul wrote these words, he's chained to a Roman guard. And
in that prison, chained to that guard, he sees him there 24 hours a day. You
just have to think he got this picture.

I want to be chained to God's hope. I want to be guarded by God's peace. And he
realized that prayer did that for him.

Oh, he was chained visibly to a Roman guard. Visibly it looked like he had
everything to be anxious about, everything to be worried about. But internally,
inside, he knew that instead he was being guarded by God's peace, even in the
most difficult of circumstances.

And God will do that for you. We've talked about prayer. We've talked about
worries and how God can take care of our worries through prayer.

Let's take a moment to pray about our worries right now. What's worrying you?
Let's do what these verses say.

Right now, say to God, "God, even in light of what I'm worried about, I realize
your greatness. I realize that you have a plan. And I realize that even when I'm
confused and anxious, you're not.

You've never worried a single moment in all of eternity because you know your
plan. And so God, in this moment, I come to you recognizing your greatness. And
here's my request.

Here's my need. What am I worried about? " God, you see the worry.

You see the concern. You see how I'd like things to change or circumstances to
change or people to change. And I don't know whether you're going to do that
quickly or slowly.

But I do know that right now, you can begin to guard my heart. You can guard my
heart with your peace through Christ Jesus. And I pray that you would.

In fact, I want to, by faith, thank you in advance that you will. I believe your
word. I believe that what you say is true.

God, as I present this request to you and I lean on you, rely not on what I can
do, but on what you can do. I realize that you will guard my heart and my mind
in Christ Jesus. Thank you by faith.

In Jesus' name, amen. Join us tomorrow as we continue to walk through these
verses. We're going to look at verses 8 and 9 of Philippians, chapter 4.