“Prerequisites of Peace” Part 5 - “Let Your Requests Be Made Known Unto God"

"Prerequisites of Peace"

Part 5 - "Let Your Requests Be Made Known Unto God"

    "Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God.  And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:6-7). 

   The prerequisites, as taught by the Apostle Paul:

1.  The determination to not be governed by fear.

2.  Prayerful fellowship with God.

3.  Supplication, or humbly acknowledging our need for His help.

4.  Thanksgiving.

5.  Specific offering of requests for God's help.

   

   The generalized must become the specific if we are to consistently walk with our Lord in His peace.  "Help Lord!" may be fine in some circumstances when calamity suddenly and bewilderingly confronts us.  The norm, however, involves a closeness of fellowship with God whereby we pointedly seek His grace regarding our needs at hand.  In fact, the Apostle Paul implies that we ask as if our Lord did not already know the nature of our requirement for His help - "Let your requests be made known unto God."

   This present an interesting doctrinal enigma.  Our Heavenly Father already perfectly knows our requirements long before trouble arrives at our doorstep.  "Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask Him" (Matthew 6:8).  The Bible clearly presents to us a God whose "understanding is infinite" (Psalm 147:5).  The past, present, and future lie within the field of our Lord's vision as they were but a single moment.  This foundational Biblical truth must be received and affirmed as a primary tenet of our faith.  However, for our benefit, relating to God requires a response that seems to inform Him of our need.  Again, Paul commands that our requests be "made known unto God".  How do we make matters known to the One who knows all?  Rather than contradiction, this speaks to how pointedly our Heavenly Father would have us to present our hearts and lives to Him.  We know that He knows.  However, we pray in a manner that seems to inform Him because it motivates us to fellowship with Him in the specified manner whereby we consistently cast our cares upon Him.  This sets our heart at peace as we pointedly address needs to the One who can do something about them.

   Faith in the Lord Jesus ushers us into real relationship and fellowship with God.  This involves learning as much as possible about Him in the general terms of Biblical doctrine.  It also calls us to respond to the Lord and His Word in the specified manner that allows for relating to Him in life as we actually experience it.  We make known the matters of our life He already knows, and thus walk with Him in both the genuine fellowship and confidence assurance that establishes and maintains the peace of our hearts.

"Call unto Me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not."

(Jeremiah 33:3)

Weekly Memory Verse

    Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

(II Corinthians 11:14-15)