Ready and Steady Christians
I dearly love this passage from the Bible. For many years, no matter what has been happening in my life, with my family, my local church, the nation, or the wider world, whenever I’ve read these powerful words I was strengthened. In following them I have been more grounded and resilient as a Christian.
These days we are now living through are highly anxious. We are in the 8th month of the COVID-19 pandemic. Infection rates are rising in half of our country and it will be a long time before all citizens will have access to a vaccine. In 23 days, there will be a presidential election. Every day in the news cycle are new crises, plus updates on other worrisome topics and tragic events. Added to that is chronic stress in our personal lives. We are an anxious people.
How good it is then, that we have Philippians 4 before us. Paul was in prison when he wrote this letter to the church. His surroundings were miserable, his future looked bleak, yet he used the word JOY sixteen times, at least once in every chapter. Paul was embodying joy despite anxious circumstances. I imagine he was a man who woke up saying “Good Morning, Lord” no matter what. But I bet nearby cell mates woke up feeling differently, saying “Good Lord, it’s morning.”
Now, how about you? Be honest, what generally crosses your mind when you open your eyes? Are you usually oriented toward gratitude and God, or do anxious thoughts begin to fill you? Paul offered his listeners this first piece of advice, a way they should start their day: “Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice.” He repeated this message to make sure they knew it was important.
Then Paul went on to describe what should not be filling their mind, saying “Don’t worry about anything.” In other words, empty every single worry out of your brain, so there is nothing, nada, zip, zero anxiety within you. Can you sense what that would be like, to have God’s help, so all worries left you?
I bet you’d like to know how to have that happen in your life! Consider this… God gives each of us “natural” reflexes, like when a doctor taps on our knee it is triggered to automatically move. But we also have the ability to develop “conditioned” reflexes. What we do many times over can be instinctive, because we have trained ourselves through repetition. Watch a Catholic when they hear the words “In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.” Observe someone serving in the military automatically stand at attention and salute an officer. This is a learned or conditioned reflex. When I hear the words to the pledge of allegiance I put my right hand over my chest, just like I did as a little girl with long hair standing in my elementary classroom facing a flag by the blackboard.
In much the same way, we can discipline ourselves to wake up and begin our day with God. We can quietly thank God for the fresh gift of the day before us instead of allowing worries to waft around us and slowly fill our minds. As we practice this, it can become our habit, helping us shift away from chronic worrying toward a more content and worshipful start to our day.
The next thing Paul tells us is to bring all of our prayers and requests to God. Jesus said the same thing in his sermon on the mount found in Matthew 6:25-34. He described how creation, the birds in the air and the lilies in the field trust that God will take care of them. We should follow their trusting example, but instead we often try to figure out solutions all by ourselves. Now there are things on our to-do lists we can accomplish, given the time and some motivation. But other things happening in our life can be more complex. They are unresolved, but important. Those are the things God wants to help us with, but we first have to decide to turn to Him and ask in prayer.
The Old English word for “worry” means being choked or strangled by something. The idea of being physically strangled is a frightening thought for me, I hope I never experience that. But in all honesty, I can admit there are times when I have let my biggest worries strangle my heart and my hope. I have let myself believe a situation will never improve. I have, without realizing it, let my anxieties so fill me I choke, I struggle to get the life-giving air of faith in God into me. Paul is telling us not to let that happen, right away give your concern to God, and repeatedly turn it over to Him so it doesn’t lodge within you diminishing your wellness.
Here’s another reason why we need to be good at praying. So much of what we fret about never comes to pass. If you or I recorded every anxious thought we had late at night before we fell asleep, or every time we thought about a tough family issue, or what 2022 will be like for us, I bet we could have a pretty long, depressing list. It says in Proverbs 12:25: “An anxious heart weighs a person down.”
Would you agree that our minds can and do get weary, but worry can also hurt our health? When we wallow in worry our stomach keeps score! We can get headaches and sleep poorly at night. Our immune system can be compromised and our heart health endangered. These are serious medical issues all causes by anxiety. When we worry, we can literally make ourselves sick!
I think I’ve made the case that worrying is not God’s plan for our lives, but we do it a lot; we also wish we could change that way of thinking and living. Here are three things to do we can do to gain control over our anxiety. First, ask yourself, “Do I have the ability to make this better?” Consider whether you have any control over the situation, any ability to influence, change or stop it. If you cannot be part of the solution – then turn it over to God. No amount of internal fussing will make a bit of difference. Second, if you can do something decide right then, “Will I act now, in the future, or never on this thing I am anxious about?” Think of this as a decision tree, helping you efficiently figure out whether you will act on this today, tomorrow, or never. Along with that realize that some things may take a lot of time and energy , so it might mean chipping away at it until it becomes smaller. The third thing is to remember to “Give yourself grace.” When you make some progress, let yourself feel pleased. Be gentle not harsh with what you can accomplish. Don’t let a critical inner voice shame you, instead listen for God’s voice that affirms and loves you.
And with all your worries, the small, medium, large, and seemingly impossible-to-solve, remember this fourth truth: “God is your Helper”. You are not alone – you have the presence and the power of God with you. I love what Peter wrote in I Peter 5:7: “Cast ALL of your cares on God, for He cares for you.” Our loving Father wants us as His children to rely on him when we find ourselves in a place of need.
That’s what the teenage shepherd David did when he faced the 9-foot tall Philistine soldier named Goliath. He looked at that big man without fear because he was confident God’s power far exceeded Goliath’s strength. Meanwhile Goliath made the mistake of thinking a puny kid was a small matter, never realizing the immense power of God at work within Him. The lesson here is that God makes all the difference. Do you believe God has been and can be your Helper and God makes all the difference?
Something else Paul counsels us on is to practice thanks-giving. We can easily do this when things in our life have been awesome, but Paul says praise God when you are still stuck, swimming in a sea of struggles. He is reminding us to count our blessings on our hard days, to rejoice at all times. Now that can be a stretch, but it can make all the difference. Have you ever been tempted to only see the bad – you feel like dark clouds will always linger over you? God knows we are tempted to do that, so we have this teaching from Paul to be disciplined. To incorporate into each day, time when we reflect on the positive, the good in your day, or your life, or the world around you. Paul even helps us with this with a list. Whatever things are true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, or praiseworthy, think about these things! If you make this your habit it will nurture and sustain you, pushing away your anxious thoughts. Put another way, what you feed, grows. We can feed our fears, or our faith. We can be filled up with dark thoughts or focus on what is beautiful, bright, and excellent.
I want to close today with one of my favorite quotes from a woman by the name of Corrie Ten Boom. (In a few weeks I will offer a message about her life for All Saints’ Day.) Corrie lived through one of the most turbulent, anxious times in recent history and this is what she affirmed and lived; may we do the same: “Never be afraid to trust an unknown future…to a known God.”
These days we are now living through are highly anxious. We are in the 8th month of the COVID-19 pandemic. Infection rates are rising in half of our country and it will be a long time before all citizens will have access to a vaccine. In 23 days, there will be a presidential election. Every day in the news cycle are new crises, plus updates on other worrisome topics and tragic events. Added to that is chronic stress in our personal lives. We are an anxious people.
How good it is then, that we have Philippians 4 before us. Paul was in prison when he wrote this letter to the church. His surroundings were miserable, his future looked bleak, yet he used the word JOY sixteen times, at least once in every chapter. Paul was embodying joy despite anxious circumstances. I imagine he was a man who woke up saying “Good Morning, Lord” no matter what. But I bet nearby cell mates woke up feeling differently, saying “Good Lord, it’s morning.”
Now, how about you? Be honest, what generally crosses your mind when you open your eyes? Are you usually oriented toward gratitude and God, or do anxious thoughts begin to fill you? Paul offered his listeners this first piece of advice, a way they should start their day: “Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice.” He repeated this message to make sure they knew it was important.
Then Paul went on to describe what should not be filling their mind, saying “Don’t worry about anything.” In other words, empty every single worry out of your brain, so there is nothing, nada, zip, zero anxiety within you. Can you sense what that would be like, to have God’s help, so all worries left you?
I bet you’d like to know how to have that happen in your life! Consider this… God gives each of us “natural” reflexes, like when a doctor taps on our knee it is triggered to automatically move. But we also have the ability to develop “conditioned” reflexes. What we do many times over can be instinctive, because we have trained ourselves through repetition. Watch a Catholic when they hear the words “In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.” Observe someone serving in the military automatically stand at attention and salute an officer. This is a learned or conditioned reflex. When I hear the words to the pledge of allegiance I put my right hand over my chest, just like I did as a little girl with long hair standing in my elementary classroom facing a flag by the blackboard.
In much the same way, we can discipline ourselves to wake up and begin our day with God. We can quietly thank God for the fresh gift of the day before us instead of allowing worries to waft around us and slowly fill our minds. As we practice this, it can become our habit, helping us shift away from chronic worrying toward a more content and worshipful start to our day.
The next thing Paul tells us is to bring all of our prayers and requests to God. Jesus said the same thing in his sermon on the mount found in Matthew 6:25-34. He described how creation, the birds in the air and the lilies in the field trust that God will take care of them. We should follow their trusting example, but instead we often try to figure out solutions all by ourselves. Now there are things on our to-do lists we can accomplish, given the time and some motivation. But other things happening in our life can be more complex. They are unresolved, but important. Those are the things God wants to help us with, but we first have to decide to turn to Him and ask in prayer.
The Old English word for “worry” means being choked or strangled by something. The idea of being physically strangled is a frightening thought for me, I hope I never experience that. But in all honesty, I can admit there are times when I have let my biggest worries strangle my heart and my hope. I have let myself believe a situation will never improve. I have, without realizing it, let my anxieties so fill me I choke, I struggle to get the life-giving air of faith in God into me. Paul is telling us not to let that happen, right away give your concern to God, and repeatedly turn it over to Him so it doesn’t lodge within you diminishing your wellness.
Here’s another reason why we need to be good at praying. So much of what we fret about never comes to pass. If you or I recorded every anxious thought we had late at night before we fell asleep, or every time we thought about a tough family issue, or what 2022 will be like for us, I bet we could have a pretty long, depressing list. It says in Proverbs 12:25: “An anxious heart weighs a person down.”
Would you agree that our minds can and do get weary, but worry can also hurt our health? When we wallow in worry our stomach keeps score! We can get headaches and sleep poorly at night. Our immune system can be compromised and our heart health endangered. These are serious medical issues all causes by anxiety. When we worry, we can literally make ourselves sick!
I think I’ve made the case that worrying is not God’s plan for our lives, but we do it a lot; we also wish we could change that way of thinking and living. Here are three things to do we can do to gain control over our anxiety. First, ask yourself, “Do I have the ability to make this better?” Consider whether you have any control over the situation, any ability to influence, change or stop it. If you cannot be part of the solution – then turn it over to God. No amount of internal fussing will make a bit of difference. Second, if you can do something decide right then, “Will I act now, in the future, or never on this thing I am anxious about?” Think of this as a decision tree, helping you efficiently figure out whether you will act on this today, tomorrow, or never. Along with that realize that some things may take a lot of time and energy , so it might mean chipping away at it until it becomes smaller. The third thing is to remember to “Give yourself grace.” When you make some progress, let yourself feel pleased. Be gentle not harsh with what you can accomplish. Don’t let a critical inner voice shame you, instead listen for God’s voice that affirms and loves you.
And with all your worries, the small, medium, large, and seemingly impossible-to-solve, remember this fourth truth: “God is your Helper”. You are not alone – you have the presence and the power of God with you. I love what Peter wrote in I Peter 5:7: “Cast ALL of your cares on God, for He cares for you.” Our loving Father wants us as His children to rely on him when we find ourselves in a place of need.
That’s what the teenage shepherd David did when he faced the 9-foot tall Philistine soldier named Goliath. He looked at that big man without fear because he was confident God’s power far exceeded Goliath’s strength. Meanwhile Goliath made the mistake of thinking a puny kid was a small matter, never realizing the immense power of God at work within Him. The lesson here is that God makes all the difference. Do you believe God has been and can be your Helper and God makes all the difference?
Something else Paul counsels us on is to practice thanks-giving. We can easily do this when things in our life have been awesome, but Paul says praise God when you are still stuck, swimming in a sea of struggles. He is reminding us to count our blessings on our hard days, to rejoice at all times. Now that can be a stretch, but it can make all the difference. Have you ever been tempted to only see the bad – you feel like dark clouds will always linger over you? God knows we are tempted to do that, so we have this teaching from Paul to be disciplined. To incorporate into each day, time when we reflect on the positive, the good in your day, or your life, or the world around you. Paul even helps us with this with a list. Whatever things are true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, or praiseworthy, think about these things! If you make this your habit it will nurture and sustain you, pushing away your anxious thoughts. Put another way, what you feed, grows. We can feed our fears, or our faith. We can be filled up with dark thoughts or focus on what is beautiful, bright, and excellent.
I want to close today with one of my favorite quotes from a woman by the name of Corrie Ten Boom. (In a few weeks I will offer a message about her life for All Saints’ Day.) Corrie lived through one of the most turbulent, anxious times in recent history and this is what she affirmed and lived; may we do the same: “Never be afraid to trust an unknown future…to a known God.”