Philippians 4:5-6 says, “Let your forbearance be known to all men. The Lord is near. In nothing be anxious, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.” Prayer is general with the essence of worship and fellowship; petition is special for particular needs. Both our prayer and petition should be accompanied by thanksgiving to the Lord. The English preposition to in the phrase “to God” is the Greek preposition pros. This preposition is often translated “with” (John 1:1; Mark 9:19; Matt. 26:55; 2 Cor. 5:8; 1 Cor. 16:6; 1 John 1:2). It denotes motion towards, in the sense of a living union and communion; thus, it implies fellowship. Hence, the meaning of “to God” here is in fellowship with God. John 1:1 uses the preposition pros in the phrase “the Word was with (pros) God.” Such a word conveys the thought of traffic, something going back and forth. It denotes motion toward some object which produces a transaction in the sense of a living union. Based upon this union, there is communion which is a communication or fellowship.
Whenever we pray, making our petition in the proper way, there should be some traffic between us and God. Something from us should move toward God, causing God to respond to us. This moving back and forth is fellowship. This is the proper meaning of the word fellowship. Fellowship is actually the dispensing of God for man to receive. The fellowship we have with God, on God’s side, is His dispensing, and, on our side, our receiving. He dispenses, and we receive. The more fellowship we have, the more we receive of God through His dispensing.
When we are short of something, we may become anxious. We should not bear this anxiety by ourselves. We should let God know, by making our requests to Him, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving. This is the kind of prayer we should have. We do not need to pray in the way of begging God to do things for us. We should just tell Him what we need, that is, we should let Him know, not keeping anything within ourselves. If we have any worry or anxiety, we should just tell Him. Our letting Him know is our motion toward Him. Then His response is His dispensing, His mingling of Himself with us, even before He answers our request. This mingling of divinity with humanity is the mingling of two entities, the divine entity and the human entity.
Philippians 4:6 is apparently a very simple verse since it exhorts us not to worry and to let God know our requests. However, the reality this word reveals is not so simple or shallow. Electricity also is apparently very simple. If you need heat or light you just push a button, and you get heat or light. If you want cold air, you just push another button. The application of electricity is very simple, but the science of electricity is not so simple. If electricity were dispensed into you without limit, you would die of its electrical current. The higher the current of electricity is, the quicker you would die. But with the “divine electricity,” the divine dispensing, the more God you receive, the more you live. On the one hand, as you receive this divine electricity, the old man dies, but on the other hand, the new man lives. The divine dispensing is also a science, and the study of the divine dispensing can never be exhausted.
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