One of my favorite promises in the Bible is offered as a consequence of two commands Paul issued the Philippians. I take these tandem commands as two non-negotiable prerequisites for God to do on your behalf what He really wants to do. Unmerited peace is ours when we remove the barriers and lay hold of our Heavenly Father.

⁶Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. ⁷And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Many of those closest to me know this passage really well. I have had it memorized since I was a young child. Of course what has always appealed to me was the “peace of God which surpasses all comprehension.” That sounds pretty good! This phrase is just the kind of thing one would expect from the hand of the God who has “demonstrated His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” Somewhere prominent in twelve of Paul’s thirteen letters we see this refrain: “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” If you are a believer given to a naturally pessimistic frame of mind, you probably need to be reminded from time to time that God wants you to have the best and highest. Despite the trials and struggles in this life, the pain and hardship, the loss and trouble, God is ordering history on your behalf for your good. The Bible makes this point again and again.

This kind intention, in which all of history is organized to glorify Jesus Christ and thus His fellow-heirs (Rom 8:17), may not be our first thought when hard times come. When we suffer, we often switch to just the opposite rationale. It goes like this: 1) God is omnipotent, so He can do anything He wants! 2) I am hurting. 3) If God wanted me to have peace or joy or blessing, then He would take away this hurt. 4) Therefore I must conclude that God does not want me to have peace. 5) For the really self-deluded: therefore I conclude that God does not love me. This is of course man’s reasoning devoid of God’s revelation. This tendency in all of us was first suggested by God’s enemy in Genesis 3. The satanic narrative of our human condition is always that God is the cosmic torturer holding back the goodies in order to torment us.

from Tom Dooley and Bill Looney’s Noah’s Ark

But the revelation of Scripture paints a different picture of suffering and peace. Peace is available in the storm, not only in its breaking. Suffering produces desirable effects in our character, not just pain and wear. Even our Lord was sanctified through suffering—the perfectly sinless humanity of Christ! Hebrews 5:8 says, “Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.” We are not given a merely static image of our suffering Savior; we are told repeatedly how He performed under the suffering. What did He do about it? He called out to His Father, for one thing. On the Cross, Jesus quoted Psalm 22:1 and Ps 31:5, both prayers to God the Father. “My God, My God why have your forsaken Me?” is an appropriate lament for our Savior as He bore our sins on the cross. And “into Your hands I commit My spirit” is the fitting conclusion to the greatest life ever lived.

Paul’s instructions that remove all barriers to God’s gift of peace in the storm echo the Lord’s pattern in His suffering. They involve a mindset and prayer, our attitude and the communication that comes from it. Check out Philippians 4:6 in a little detail:

Command 1: “Be anxious for nothing.” I have discussed this command many times in many venues because it is such a surprising thing to read and process. How can we tell people not to worry? How can we just say “stop it” to anxiety? The Christian mindset assumes the command is binding and reasons that anxiety is a choice, the opposite of faith in God. Pagan thinking cannot accept the revelation of Scripture regarding our capabilities and responsibilities, so this command is ridiculed as wishful thinking. But here’s the question, Christian: if God Who made your mind tells you how to use it, do you believe He knows what you’re capable of? Do you think He knows how to handle anxiety? This command takes you from a focus on your troubles to occupation with your Savior, the only solution to all our troubles. He’s got it. Trust Him.

Mindset thus established, we move to action:

Command 2: “but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” The main command here, as it is well-translated by the NASB, goes against our theological reasoning sometimes. Does God not already know my requests? The verse does not say, “Ask Him your requests,” even though that’s what it means. Notice it says “Let your requests be made known to God.” The way Paul says it matters because it tells us to stop reasoning God’s omniscience against prayers we should offer to Him. This point is important, so I won’t leave it subtly stated: It is true that God is omniscient (all-knowing) and it is still true that He commands your communication of requests to Him. Why? Isn’t that extra? I think we’re talking about the difference between a public notice in the newspaper and an invitation in the mail.

Us:       “Why didn’t you come to my party?”

God:    “You didn’t invite Me.”

Us:       “But You knew I was having it, and You knew that I wanted You to come.”

God:    “Yes, but I told you to invite Me.”

There’s something life-defining about the personal engagement of the God in His instructions to pray to Him. I believe that this personal contact in communications is the most important part of prayer, and this is why the all-knowing Creator wants you to “make your requests known to Him.”

Do not forget thanksgiving in bringing your requests. This element is part of our reasonable service of worship; since Romans 8:28 is in effect, we can be thankful even for the hardships that God is somehow working together for good.

My prayer for you is that you try obedience on this procedure for worshiping God through the storm. If Paul, a prisoner of Christ, could rejoice through his sufferings and have this beyond-comprehension peace, then so can we. God, apparently, is waiting to dispense His peace on those who draw near to Him with a right mindset and urgent, specific requests attended by thanksgiving.