Philippians 4:6-13 says, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honourable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.”
'I don't mind changes as long as I'm in control of them.' Most of us don't say this rather bold and scary thought out loud, but it's likely true for many of us. We don't know what later today will bring, or tomorrow, or next week, or next year. We have to trust in something and I choose to trust in Someone. I'm not always very good at trusting, but to the best of my ability I choose to trust in my Heavenly Father. I don't trust God because I'm trusting, but because He's trustworthy. The Bible and life experiences have taught me that.
Phil 4:6 says, “don't worry”. Perhaps easier said than done, but if we're going to use the Bible as our measuring stick, then we need to make a conscious effort to do what it says - don't worry. I think the next logical question is, how don't we worry? The next verse says to tell God what we need, thank Him for what He's done and then we'll experience God's peace. It's hard to worry when we're handing God our needs, thanking Him and sitting in His peace.
Next Phil 4:8 says to fix our thoughts on what is true, honourable, right, pure, lovely and admirable. Sometimes it's hard to think on these things after we've read the newspaper, watched the news or received a difficult phone call. However, the Bible tells us how to cope with the challenges in our days - take control of our thoughts and think on God's truths.
Then “put into practice all that you have learned”. There's our challenge for today (and every day following) put into practice what we've learned. We can't just snap our fingers and change our circumstances, but we can daily walk with the Lord using each situation to grow, mature and draw closer to Him. There's nothing like walking in the valleys hand in hand with the Lord; step by step, clinging to His hand, trusting Him to keep you on the path and being in His presence. I didn't say it was easy, but there is nothing like it.
As I go about my day I'm going to try to think about truth, honour, rightness, purity, loveliness and all that's admirable. How about you?
Jo-Ann
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