Think About This

Philippians 4:4-9

I was sitting in the doctor’s waiting room, reading a book that was required reading for class: The Christology of Jesus. It was very heady reading, and I was struggling with it. A woman asked me what I was reading and I showed her the cover of the book and muttered, “It’s a chore.” She, having obviously misheard me, responded brightly, “Honey, any time you’re reading about Jesus, it’s a joy.”

I don’t know if she was an angel sent down from heaven or if she was just an angel stationed here on earth, but God had obviously sent her to give me a clear message. This is the same kind of message Paul is sending to the church in Philippi. There is always something to rejoice about! It doesn’t bother me that I read this first part of the passage in my last sermon, because, if Paul can repeat himself, so can I! Rejoice in the Lord always! Rejoice!

One of the things that Paul was sure of was that Jesus would return soon. I’ve seen a T-shirt that says, “Jesus is coming… look busy.” But what might our attitude look like if we actively believed that Jesus could be returning any moment? What might we not put off? How might we treat one another? How might we treat those who are outside of the church? Would it make any difference to understand that you might be the only Jesus they ever meet?

I’ve been approaching this in the realm of “how might your behavior look” if you realized Jesus was near, but what about our attitudes? Paul continues by reminding us that if Jesus’ nearness should affect our thought patterns as well. Do not be anxious about anything. Paul had every reason to be anxious. If people like the Philippian Church hadn’t sent him money, Paul would literally have starved in prison. At this point, he didn’t know whether he would live or die. Yet he wasn’t all bent out of shape with worry. In fact, this is a great example of what Jesus said about worry in Matthew 6:25-34: 

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 

For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Don’t worry about tomorrow; let tomorrow worry about itself. Some of you struggle with worry and you might be saying, “easier said than done!” How are we supposed to live without worry? Paul addresses this. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6-7)

Instead of giving in to anxiety, present every request to God. The formula is that in everything we bring our prayers to God – with thanksgiving. I want to bring a couple of things to your attention. Paul doesn’t ask us to bring “some” things to God. Paul doesn’t say, “When you’re at wits end, then pray.” Paul doesn’t say, “Do everything you can yourself and then pray.” Paul doesn’t say, “Only pray for the big things,” or “Only pray for the little things.” Paul tells us that everything is worthy of prayer.

But Paul also gives us the perspective for when we’re in prayer. Sometimes we are guilty of jumping straight in with our requests, which is understandable when you’re in an emergency situation and all you can do is just cry out for help. But in our daily prayer time, we’re called to present our prayers with thanksgiving.

Not only does Paul tell us to rejoice in all situations, but he also tells us to present our requests with thanksgiving. Sometimes it can be hard to give thanks in your circumstance. Things are going poorly. Money issues. Health issues. Job issues. Family issues. World issues. They’re all a burden. It’s hard to feel thankful in those situations. But here’s the deal, Paul doesn’t say “feel” thankful. Paul simply tells us to pray with thanksgiving. This isn’t about “feelings.” I don’t know how many times I’ve heard someone say they didn’t feel like praying or worship or singing praise to God. OK, but I didn’t feel like writing this sermon. I didn’t feel like getting out of bed this morning. I never feel like changing stinky diapers. What else? There are all kinds of things in life we don’t feel like doing, yet we do them all the time.

This goes right along with one of my biggest church pet peeves; someone will say they don’t want to force their child to go to church, yet they force them to go to school every day.

OK, that was off-topic. Back to Philippians – Paul doesn’t ever ask us to feel thankful; we are to give thanks as we pray. Why might that be? Because our emotions are fickle. They are swayed by all sorts of external circumstances. I once was prescribed a pain medication that made me feel paranoid. I really thought people, including perfect strangers, were doing mean things to me on purpose. Were they really? No. It was a nasty side-effect of a medication (which I trashed after I realized what was happening). I know I tend to be depressed when I don’t get enough sleep. I tend to be grouchy when I’m hungry or when I haven’t gotten enough exercise. I think you get the point. Our emotions are fickle, so why would we leave our relationship with God subject to the whim of our emotions?

Besides, have you ever thought that God might just have a plan? You might be a part of God’s miraculous and mighty plan, and even the difficult things you are going through could very well be a part of it as well. I’m not saying that God wants his people to suffer, but I’m certainly saying that God will use and even redeem our suffering. Every bit of it. God uses the difficulties of this earth to help shape us into the person he created us to be. Just as gold is refined in the fire, so are we refined by the struggles of this life.

If it seems impossible to thank God for the not-the-greatest aspects of life and you think it would be impossible to thank him for the bad times, you’re probably right, so you’re going to have to count on him to do it. Remember, this is the God who started a good work in you and who will be faithful to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus (Philippians 1:6). This is the God for whom nothing is impossible (Luke 1:37).

When we get to the point when we allow the Holy Spirit such control that we can even thank God for the adverse circumstances, then is it any question that God’s peace that transcends all understanding will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus?

So many times we try to manufacture our own peace or define peace as an absence of conflict, when really our God is sufficient to give us peace in the face of the most difficult conflict. Consider the German martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who died as a traitor to Nazi Germany, and of whom the camp doctor who witnessed his execution noted, “I have hardly ever seen a man die so entirely submissive to the will of God.” (Foxe: Voice of the Martyrs, p. 237)

The reality is we are never alone. God is with us. If you’ve ever gone rappelling, you might know the feeling – you’re standing, leaning over a cliff, and the last thing you want to do is lean back more. But that’s exactly what you do, trusting that your harness and ropes and spotter have you. We sometimes get so caught up in trying to keep things under control that we forget that God already has it under control. So with that said, we focus on our minds.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things. (Philippians 4:8)

Paul has said elsewhere (Romans 12:2) that the key to not conforming to the world is through renewing our minds. If you’re anything like me, you think, “easier said than done.” But Paul won’t have any of that and I won’t either. If it’s worth doing, it’s worth working at. And training your mind to think godly thoughts is no different. You can’t fill your mind with garbage and expect goodness to just flow out. At scout camp two weeks ago, a little boy told me he didn’t think it was fair that his parents wouldn’t let him watch certain shows because they used bad language. “I hear that stuff all the *f-in’* time,” he explained. He didn’t abbreviate the word.

So how do you train your mind to think differently when we’re immersed in a world that doesn’t? The key is in training. A non-runner doesn’t just wake up one day and say, “I think I’ll run a marathon,” and just go out and pound 26.2 miles of pavement. No, the non-runner starts with a few steps and extends that to a mile, then a few miles, then 10 milers then 20 milers, then runs a marathon after training and training for it. And if we want to have transformed minds that conform to that of Jesus Christ, we have to practice thinking about godly things.

Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.

Practice that. Mark it in your Bible. Especially if you’re a worrier or a negative Nelly, mark this. We have the power to control our thought lives. I think I’ll need to say this again – we have the power to control our thought lives. But here’s the problem; we often find ourselves wallowing in negative and unhealthy thought patterns and we don’t do anything about it – maybe we don’t think there’s anything we can do about it. That’s a lie. We can change our thoughts. But it takes time and work and practice. We don’t think about what we’re pouring into our thought lives – the movies and shows we watch, the websites we frequent, who we follow on Twitter and Facebook. It can be easy to go with the flow and never evaluate what we’re thinking about. Think about it.

If you can’t find something to think about, something true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent or praiseworthy, try reading Scripture. God has given us His Word and it is all these things. Instead of turning on a show that might not fit into any of these categories, read the Bible. Look for something positive to think of. If you look for something positive, chances are you will find it, and it will transform you. When I was in eighth grade, I had a teacher who gave me lots of trouble. Well, more accurately, my teacher had a student who gave her lots of trouble. Anyway, I got in trouble at home and my punishment was that I had to tell my mom something nice about this teacher every day. And it couldn’t be a backhanded slam. Not only did I stop getting in trouble in her class, but as I strained to think of something nice to say about her, I had to look at this teacher in a whole new way.

The idea that we can’t change our thought patterns is ridiculous. But it takes work. If you’re not willing to do the work, don’t expect to see results.

And as our thought patterns are changed, our behavior will also change. So Paul says: change your thought patterns and Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, seen in me – put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

Here’s the thing: we can think all kinds of things, we can learn all kinds of things in church and in sermons and in our Bible reading, but if we don’t put it into practice, we’re stupid.

Jesus says the one who hears his words and doesn’t put them into practice is like someone who builds a house without a foundation. Whenever a torrent strikes the house, its destruction is complete. (Luke 6:49). Indeed, Jesus goes so far as to say that his mother and his brothers are those who hear God’s word and put it into practice. (Luke 8:21).

So will we be broken, completely destroyed houses, or will we be counted among Jesus’ immediate family?