Be careful for nothing

"Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God." (Philippians 4:6)

Careful about nothing, and prayerful and thankful in everything, is the true attitude of those who know God, towards circumstances in this world; and what a life of blessed contentment and peace would this condition of things yield. But it is not natural to any one of us to be thus superior to circumstances, and it may be asked: Is it possible?

The Scriptures not only give us the most blessed precepts and exhortations, hut these precepts are also presented to us, livingly, in men like ourselves. These are witnesses to the fact that a life of obedience to these precepts is not Utopian in character but within the reach of every one who, coming to God, believes that He is, and that He is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.

The three Hebrew youths (Dan. 3) stand amongst the chiefest of the witnesses to the fact that it is possible to be without care. They were confronted by the cruel power of a pagan autocrat, and threatened with destruction in the furnace of fire, but they stood forth without a tremor in the presence of the power of evil, and refused to be turned from the path of rectitude, saying, "O Nebuchadnezzar, WE ARE NOT CAREFUL" (v. 16).

J.T.M.