ICS Daily Devotions
Let Your Requests Be Made Known to God

Philippians 4:6b (NKJV) …but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;

The Apostle Paul encouraged us to pray in every circumstance regarding anything that brings anxiety or worry in our lives. We are to make it known to God by calling and crying out to Him because He is a God who hears and cares.

The moment we are saved, we need to know that we are no longer living without hope and without God in this world. It is terrible to live in fear and hopelessness. There is a tendency for us to think of the worst scenario whenever something happens to us. Anxiety is built on fear, fear of the unknown or the possible scenarios. Fear is a spiritual force that can cripple us and prevent us from doing anything. It keeps us busy thinking about all the possible outcomes BUT IT DOES NOT HELP US TO RESOLVE THE PROBLEM. Fear is an act of the evil one that causes us to focus on the issue rather than on God.

The good news for us as believers is that we are able to surrender our problems to God and rest in His love. God is someone bigger, greater, more powerful, has much more resources, ideas, and nothing is too difficult for Him. He is limitless. THIS IS THE REASON WHY GOD ESTABLISHED A COVENANT WITH US. He established the covenant so that man’s problem will also be His problem because of the covenant obligation between partners. If He has resolved our sin issue as our covenant partner, then there is nothing in this life that He is not able to help us with. This is why it is important to understand what is a covenant and having God as our covenant partner because we are able to draw on His resources. God has established His love through an act of a covenant and He commits Himself to be with us in both good and bad times! We are blessed to have God as our covenant partner so that we are not in a hopeless situation. There is always the “God factor” in a hopeless situation.

1 Peter 5:7 (AMP) casting all your cares [all your anxieties, all your worries, and all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares about you [with deepest affection and watches over you very carefully].

God has time and again reminded us to pray and cast all our cares upon Him. Prayer and casting our cares on Him is something that we need to choose to do. We are to come before Him to tell Him specifically the situation that we are in and ask Him for help. You may ask, “Why should we share with the Lord since He is omniscient?” Speaking to Him about the situation helps act as a release valve for our emotions, deal with our fears and receive from the Lord while we are in His presence. Praying in the Spirit also helps to strengthen our inner man when we are all stressed out.

We do not need to pray long prayers but short sincere utterances of how we feel and what we are experiencing. It is an honest conversation with God and a time of fellowship with Him. It will also give Him a chance to assure us and bring scripture into our memory as a form of comfort and strength.

Sermon Series: Don’t Panic