This is m 25th entry out of 30 in my series on the world let in the Bible.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus

This is another well-known passage. Most of us read it as an admonition to not be anxious. That’s true, but it’s only the start. The more important part is what to do instead: Pray with thanksgiving and let your requests be made known to God. It’s important to see that the Lord is not simply saying to stop something. He’s saying that there is a godly alternative to being anxious; there is something we can do with all those thoughts and feelings. And the two-fold admonition doesn’t ignore those things in our hearts; it gives us a way to let them go.

But note: the let is important here because of what it implies.

If we are anxious about anything, it is because we have requests in our hearts and minds that are held in the vise of worry or fear. Those requests need to be released. If we begin our connection to God with thanksgiving, our hearts are made more aware of the two great realities: He is God and we are not.  And a third great reality is that the One who IS God desires to hear our hearts, and desires to answer our prayers.

To let our requests be made known to God, we need to calibrate our hearts rightly. Thanking God may be an easy thing for the constant worshipper, but for many, it’s a grand step of faith—a step away from fear and anxiety, and a step toward God where we can begin to believe that we are coming to Him, believing that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him (Hebrews 11:6).

Once we connect with God as the One who receives and rewards us, it is easier to give thanks. Why? Because we know that He hears and knows how best to answer our prayers. Once we’ve made that connection, we need to let those requests that have been in our hearts and mind be released to Him, knowing, knowing, that we are unburdening ourselves before the One who understands us the most, and who understands more deeply than we ever could what we’ve been holding in our hearts. This kind of prayer is a releasing of pent-up thoughts, burdens, worries, and fear, not just a naming of them. We may have to dig deep to let them all go, as most fears are held very deeply in our hearts, and we need to make sure that we are letting all our requests move from our hearts to His.

Can you stop your brain and heart long enough to realize who you are about to pray to, and His incredible power and desire to hear you, and give Him thanks for that? Then, can you actually let go of all the worries and fears to Him—every last one of them— releasing them at Him, not to be picked up again?

Once we do that, we find His peace, which enters once we’ve made room in our hearts for it, emptying it of our requests. We have to let all our requests, even our most deeply held ones, be released to the throne of God. But then rejoice, because peace is God’s replacement for those things that have weighed us down. (Note: Peace here is a byproduct, not something we can access directly. We first have to believe in who He is, then we have to unburden ourselves, and then His peace comes in.)