We are anxious because something is out of our control. So in the last verse we were told to give up control, connect with the one who has control - God. "Tell your requests to God," Paul wrote.
The peace that would result contrasts with the anxiety in the previous verse.
Anxiety is reflective of not trusting in the Lord with all our heart and of leaning on our own understanding rather than acknowledging Him in all our ways (Proverbs 3:5-6).
And rather than the simple trust of making your request known to God, people can create gimmicks, e.g. dancing, going up a mountain, how many times you can jump, etc.
They may comb through scriptures, thinking they'll find a gimmick that will put them over, like a magic wand. They may believe that what Paul said in this verse is somehow too simple.
Elisha told an army general something simple to get rid of his leprosy (2 Kings 5). But the general was a sophisticated man. He did not get to his position or maintain it by being average. To earn his subordinates' respect, he must be a strategic thinker, someone who can review a complex battlefield. He expected magic. He expected Elisha to go through some motions, perform something dramatic, unheard of. But the solution was simpler - obey. The solution was in obeying not in the details of the mechanism, in which he was putting his trust.
Someone eventually talked sense into the general, and simply dipping in the water restored his skin.
***
There could be people on the other end of that spectrum. Instead of making things more complicated, they want to simplify it further.
That person might say, But God knows everything, so why ask anything at all?
But it is not in what God knows. But in what you are doing because you recognize the existence of God. Your prayers, requests, and thanksgivings express faith.
He who approaches God, the Bible says, must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him (Hebrews 11:6). Your prayers, requests and thanksgiving put your faith at play, which is important.
When you make your request known to God, you are seeking him. He welcomes, nay, invites, such seeking.
Again, that is faith in action. Faith is acting based on the reality of the unseen. You making your request known to God is you acting because you believe God exists, even though you don't see Him. He invites you to call on Him day and night, in committed dependence on Him (Luke 18:7-8).
That is easier said than done, because, unbeknownst to us, the bent of self-dependence can creep in.
Therefore the one who thinks he is standing when it comes to making requests known to God should watch so that he does not slip from that firmness into self dependence (1 Corinthians 10:12).
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And this verse does not tell us that one hour after, or one day after, or one month after, God would give us the answer. Or that calling upon Him for one thing means we would not need to call on Him again.
There is a promise here: peace that surpasses all understanding, peace that is beyond rationality. Where? Hearts and minds.
The heart is the seat of emotion, and the mind is the seat of thinking.
And where else do we have peace? As the fruit of the Spirit (Galatian 5:22-23). We can say part of walking in the Spirit, therefore, is making your request known to God.
But it takes constant practice. It is humbling to get down from the throne of our lives and ask God for help. And are actually called to walk humbly with our God (Micah 6:8), and in regularly making our requests known to God, we practice walking humbly before God.
Peter was more direct, saying humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God by casting your cares on Him because he cares for you (1 Peter 5:6-7).
Maybe the reason I do not cast my cares upon God is that I am proud and do not believe he cares for me. I find it hard to believe that God cares for me. This may be perceptually different from "God loves me." I may believe that God loves me and saved my soul, but caring for me feels different from that.
Jesus said God feeds and cares for the birds of the air, and clothes the flowers in the field (Matthew 6:25-34). He did not delegate it. He does it himself. So when Peter says, God cares for you, it's personal.
God's love and care were shown in the sacrifice of His Son.
What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? Indeed, he who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, freely give us all things? (Romans 8:31-32)
God gave his Son, and He would give his peace to guard your hearts and minds.
In time past, there may be guards at the gate of the city to prevent invasion.
Anxiety is an invasion, and peace is the guard that ensures it does not come into the heart and mind to wreak havoc, meaning your inner world.
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