I was listening to the news the other day and heard the most startling report. Apparently, the number one menace to world health is — not cancer, not AIDS, not suicide or accidents or plagues or polio — the number one menace to people’s health worldwide is... stress. I have to admit people do seem more stressful, angrier (at least on the freeways, and you sometimes see it in parking lots or in stores). I don’t think Christians are immune to it. In fact, rather than anger... I think a lot of us are just plain anxious – that’s how we deal with stress. We get agitated, apprehensive, distraught, and distressed... we’re just doing too much worrying!
I’m as much to blame as anyone. At night when I can’t get to sleep, that’s when I find those anxieties clutching at my throat. “Will I have the strength to do this? Will I have the time to do that? Did I say the wrong thing over there and did I do the right thing over here?” On and on it goes. Well, I shouldn’t say that. Actually, I try to nip it in the bud with that wonderful biblical prescription for worry. You know what I’m talking about, right? In fact, like me, you most likely know Philippians 4:6 by heart where it says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your heart and mind in Christ Jesus.”
You know that verse; I know that verse. But may I share something extra special about this verse today which will strengthen your heart against worry even more? It’s not an idea original to me, in fact, I can’t even remember where I learned it, but it sure has helped stem the tide against anxiety or fear of the future or... well, worry.
What is the “something special” about Philippians 4:6? It’s Philippians 4:5... the verse right before. It says, “... The Lord is near.” The Lord is near. Yep, that’s what precedes that famous portion of Scripture about not being anxious over anything but in everything presenting our needs to God. What gives us the confidence to do that? What is the push that becomes the shove? Simply put, the Lord is near.
You could read it this way... “the Lord is near so do not be anxious about anything... the Lord is near so in everything, present your requests to Him.” Listen, you can go through almost anything, you can be sitting slump-shouldered next to the hospital bedside of a loved one, you can face the most fearsome future if the Lord is standing next to you. And you know what? He is. Philippians 4:5 tells us so.
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