The prayers of Paul

This is a series on the prayers of St Paul found in the letters attributed to him in the order he is believed to have written them. Letters to the same place or person will be treated together with the first letter to that destination.

There are two prayers here. The last one is a prayer for God’s grace. I wrote about grace in the first post in this series and will return to it in the last. Grace is the beginning and the end of Christian spirituality.

The other prayer is about anxiety written by Paul, a man who suffered from anxiety. He knew what he was talking about.

⁶ do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

²³ The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

Philippians 4:6-7, 23

I once failed to turn up for a job interview. I hadn’t changed my mind, I would have phoned if I had, I was unable to get through the front door, having a panic attack each time I got close. I really wanted that job. I have had anxiety all my life, my mother used to comment about my nervous energy. Anxiety can be disabling, what it is not is a sin.

I am a nervous person. I spend hours overthinking nearly everything, especially travel plans, I don’t like travelling, especially flying, but I take it as a necessary evil in order to get somewhere. I am autistic and a lot of autistic people mention they have issues with anxiety. I like to have things planned out. Having the expected things planned for helps me with the inevitable unexpected things.

I said in the introduction that Paul suffered from anxiety. Like me unable to enter a building because of panic attacks, Paul was unable to enter Troas to preach the gospel, despite a God-given opportunity there. (2 Corinthians 2:12-13). He came to Corinth in fear and trembling. which some think is a form of stage fright, and spoke of his daily pressures weighing him down as he carried the burden for the churches under his care, (1 Corinthians 2:3-5, 2 Corinthians 11:28).

Paul knew anxiety. When he says “Do not be anxious” he is not giving an order about dealing with sin. The next word is but. “Do not be anxious but…” is one anxious person telling other worried people how he deals with anxiety.

Paul’s advice isn’t simply to pray about it. When we are anxious we tend to look towards negative things, the worst that can happen. Paul’s advice is to take it to God and don’t whine. That is not to say there isn’t a place for lament, lament takes up more of the Psalms than praise does, but the Psalms are mostly prophetic lament. God speaks to others through how we speak to God, so do not whinge, do not whine but be realistic in your prayers for deliverance. But Paul goes way beyond saying what we are not to do, Paul does not say to be optimistic, optimism is the other side of pessimism, instead, he tells us to offer prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. Be thankful for what God has done.

Paul suffered from anxiety. Worse than that, Paul was in prison awaiting trial before Caesar Nero, someone who was not renowned for making rational decisions and had the power to either free Paul or execute him.

If someone in Paul’s position can offer prayers and supplication in his predicament, what excuse do we have. Try it. You never know, you, like Paul, might find peace, God’s gob-smackingly awesome peace.

Some people feel guilty about their anxieties and regard them as a defect of faith. I don’t agree at all. They are afflictions, not sins. Like all afflictions, they are, if we can so take them, our share in the Passion of Christ.

C.S. Lewis.

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