Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving,
let your requests be made known to God;
Philip. 4:6 (NKJV) 
 

This is a powerful statement of faith, “Be anxious for nothing”, there seems to be plenty to be worried about. Even Jesus tells about things that could cause worry.
 

And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places.
Matthew 24:6-7 (NKJV) 
 

Yet Paul wrote, “Be anxious for nothing.” How is it possible for us to be anxious for nothing? Is Paul talking of some sort of denial of what we see? How can he tell us this? The answer is, Paul knows His God. He knows who Jesus is and what He has done. With this knowledge he is able to confidently tell us to “Be anxious for nothing”. He knows things like this:
 

These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.
John 16:33 (NKJV)
 

The question we are faced with is, has He or hasn’t He overcome the world? This question is really the crux of the matter. If Jesus has overcome the world then Paul is correct. Christians need not be anxious for anything. However, for some people this verse and others like it mean nothing. They do not believe Jesus’ claims to have overcome the world. These people view the world through their eyes and experience. They see the tribulation, not Jesus’ overcoming. They have decided to believe what they see.
 

Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons,
1 Tim. 4:1 (NKJV)
 

Jesus’ claim to have overcome must be received by faith. It is a matter of who you believe. I work in an American High School and I have two girls who are in my office often. They always have a story of what happened, unfortunately their story most of the time does not have anything more than a remote resemblance to the truth. I just do not believe their claims, as most of the time their story is wrong.
 

The question then come back to you, who do you believe? What evidence are you going to believe? In this matter your choices are what you see or the testimony of the Bible. You can believe your experience or the testimony of many saints.
 

The Bible tells of many example of the overcoming power of Jesus. The books Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are filed with examples for us. The rest of the Bible is also filled with examples and statements by men and women of the faithful testimony of the Bible to the overcoming power of Jesus. For example:
 

I have been young, and now am old; Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, Nor his descendants begging bread.
Psalm 37:25 (NKJV) 
 

There are many examples from the testimony of saints as well. George Müller, Andrew Murray, Rees Howells, John G. Lake, Oral Robert and the list goes on and on. These lived by and demonstrated the overcoming power of Jesus. And like John’s their testimony is true.
 

This is the disciple who testifies of these things, and wrote these things; and we know that his testimony is true.
John 21:24 (NKJV) 
 

Paul tells us “Be anxious in nothing” and then he gives us instruction on the way to do this. He explains we are to let our requests be made know to God. The first point of this process in to make our request know by prayer and supplication. The word translated prayer in this verse means a prayer of worship. We are to come to God honoring His name, His deeds, and abilities. We must honor Him as God. When Jesus taught His disciples to pray, He began with the prayer with prayer of worship.
 

So He said to them, “When you pray, say: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven.
Luke 11:2 (NKJV) 
 

To hallow the name of the Father is to honor His name and Him. The word translated supplication means a petition; that is a request. This fits in with what Paul has been telling us, we are to let our requests be made know to God. That is, we need to come to God in prayer and tell Him of our needs and wants.
 

Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.
Jeremiah 29:12 (NKJV) 
 

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
Matthew 7:7 (NKJV) 
 

All of this is to be done with thanksgiving. We honor God when we recognize our need to ask of Him, we also honor Him when we thank Him for what He has done for us. Too often we forget to recognize His hand in our life, His provision for our day, and His protection of our family.
 

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.
Psalm 100:4 (NKJV)
 

And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
Col. 3:17 (NKJV) 
  

The importance of thanksgiving has not always gone unrecognized in this country. Some of our leaders have recognized the role God has played in our success as a people and nation. That is why we have a Thanksgiving Day. That is why Presidents have proclaimed our need of dependence on God and our obligation to thank Him for what He has done for us. Here is an example of this recognition of God’s mighty hand in our wellbeing, this President Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation.

Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation
Washington, DC—October 3, 1863
 

The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added which are of so extraordinary a nature that they can not fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.

In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict, while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.

Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well as the iron and coal as of our precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.
 

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the imposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the divine purpose, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity, and union.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

 Done at the city of Washington, this 3d day of October, A.D. 1863, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.

 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;
Philip. 4:6 (NKJV)