Pray, Ponder, Practice

As many as three years ago I was impacted by a small group of verses in the small book of Philippians. I stumbled upon them by accident as is usually the case when walking in faith. God has a way of getting your attention when you are entirely unprepared for it!!

Philippians 4:4-9
4 Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice!5 Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do. Remember, the Lord is coming soon.
6 Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.7 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.
8 And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.9 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.

How many of us are stressed out at this time of year? Between work, school, finances, the pain over failed relationships, poor health, and the high expectations I put on myself for giving my son a good Christmas I have been a wreck. I don’t think I have slept more than four or five hours a night for months. My body is rebelling against me with a constant wheezing in my chest and pain in my joints. I wish I could afford to go to the doctor but I can’t so I just have to tough it out!!

What does Paul say for me to do in verse 4? Be filled with joy? Are you kidding me? Then he puts an emphasis on it by saying it again!! “Rejoice!” he says. Rejoice? Really? I love Jesus but I am not exactly filled with “joy in the Lord” right now. I have too much stuff going on externally and internally.....rejoice he says! Pfft!!!! How exactly am I supposed to rejoice.........what’s that? Wait a minute, he goes on to tell me exactly how to do this in the following verses!!

In verse five Paul tells us that the key to not being anxious is to simply talk to God about it. If you want peace all you have to do is tell God what’s on your mind and be thankful for what you already have. No matter how bad our situation may be there are a lot of people in the world that have it worse. We are blessed to live in the land of plenty. Think about this.....most of the world only has enough water for each person to use two gallons a day. Two gallons!! That includes drinking water, cooking, and bathing. Heck every flush of our toilets uses almost as much as most people get to use per day!!! If you thank God for all of the blessings you already have it might be hard to remain in a grumpy, stressed-out mindset.

If we bring our anxiousness to God and thank Him for all He has already done for us we can experience peace like never before!! So PRAY in a thankful manner!!

In verse eight Paul goes on to tell us that we must think about certain things. By fixing your thoughts on good things your mood will reflect these good things. Your emotions are a slave to your thoughts. This is something that has taken me a long time to figure out. Did you know that you have the power to control and change your thoughts? Try it right now.....think about a time or place (or person) that brings happiness and peace to you. Now think about something that makes you angry. Did you notice anything? For me when I think of that one person that pisses me off my pulse increases, adrenaline starts to course through my body, and I get a knot in my stomach. When I think of the time I brought my son to Disneyland for vacation it brings a smile to my face and my eyes actually well up with tears of happiness. Our thoughts are powerful dictators of our emotions. Paul knew this two thousand years ago and he tells us to focus our thoughts only on what is excellent and worthy of praise.

So what then shall we fix our thoughts on? Look at the list Paul gives us; true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, and admirable. Do you know anyone that meets all of that criteria? I do. Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior!! He meets every single one of those and so many more. So I will PONDER my Lord and think about He that is excellent and worthy of praise!!

Paul closes out his sermon in verse nine by telling us to keep practicing everything that he has talked about and taught us. The key is to listen to what he has said and practice them. Let me be clear....it’s going to take a lot of hard work and continuous practice for us to get this right and only through the grace of God will we truly get it. Our process of sanctification is a continual one that will not end until the day we fix our mortal eyes on the immortal Jesus Christ!! With PRACTICE we will get better.....just like with anything, playing guitar, karate, healthful eating habits all get easier with diligent and persistent practice.

For many of us what I have talked about today may seem daunting. You may not have any idea how you could Pray, Ponder, and Practice these things on a daily basis in hopes that your stress level goes down. Not to worry. Paul gives us the key a few verses later.

Philippians 4:13
For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.

Amen and God bless!!