Joy Over Anxiety
Philippians 4.4-9
God’s promise of peace
It was the great north African theologian and church leader, Augustine of Hippo, who wrote that ‘The purpose of all wars is peace’. Augustine believed and taught that the most fundamental human longing is the longing for peace. And that even those who go to war, go to war because they are seeking a better peace than the one they currently experience.
But the peace that Augustine believed in was not simply the absence of conflict - but the peace we can experience when we are at peace with God, our neighbour, and ourselves, the peace the Hebrews called shalom. In his great book the City of God, Augustine writes: “The peace of the celestial city is the perfectly ordered and harmonious enjoyment of God, and of one another in God. (City of God, Book 19)”
It is this peace that Paul speaks of in this passage, a peace that we can experience not just when we enter heaven, the celestial city, but here and now if we put our trust in God. It is the peace which Jesus spoke of when he rose from death on that first Easter Day and said to his disciples ‘peace be with you’. It is the objective state which forms the basis for our subjective experience of joy. Without this peace we cannot know the joy that we have been speaking about over these past weeks.
In our passage today, Paul writes about this peace as a peace which passes understanding (verse 7). He writes: And the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. And he promises that the God of peace will be with us (verse 9): ’Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me – put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you’.
But how do we receive and live in this peace? We can do so by applying Paul’s antidotes to anxiety from this passage. He tells his readers ‘not to be anxious about anything’.
Paul wasn’t immune to anxiety. Earlier in this letter he had written that he was anxious about his friend Epaphroditus’ state of health, and in particular that his fellow believers from Philippi would be worried about him.
But Paul knew and applied God’s antidotes to anxiety and wanted the church in Philippi to know and apply them too. What are they?
1. Rejoice in the Lord (v 4,5)
We rejoice when we express our joy. Let me say it again. We rejoice when we express our joy. Joy is something that we shouldn’t keep to ourselves. Joy can be energising and contagious when it is expressed. Especially when the cause of our joy is something or someone that is of universal and lasting value.
So, Paul’s first antidote to anxiety is to rejoice. Because as we consider our reasons to be joyful and express our joy, the things that are causing us anxiety become less potent. We recognise that what brings us joy is greater and more enduring than what makes us anxious.
But notice that Paul directs us to rejoice in the Lord. We are right to be thankful for the many and various blessings that we enjoy. And I hope we are and thank God for them. If we look through this letter at the things Paul rejoiced over, we see that it was not just spiritual things that brought him joy – but very human things too. In verse 10 of this chapter, Paul rejoices that the church in Philippi has been able to send aid to Paul to help him in his imprisonment.
But it is the particular blessings we enjoy in and through our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ that is the basis of joy and our rejoicing – as we have been thinking over the past few weeks. Joy stands for Jesus Overcame Death for you.
In summary, we can rejoice over what God has done for us in Christ, through his cross and resurrection, we can rejoice over what God is doing for us in Christ, through the work of his Spirit in our lives, and we can rejoice over what God will do for us in Christ, in coming to take us to be with himself in what Augustine calls the celestial city.
There are times when I arrive at church on a Sunday morning or evening, and the last thing I feel like doing is praising God, often because there is something I am worried about. But I need to take God’s first antidote for anxiety, and remember all that Christ has done, is doing and will do for me. And start rejoicing.
So, in Jesus, we have a great deal to rejoice over. And it is a rejoicing that can continue even through times of suffering or anxiety. Whatever our present circumstances, if you are a Christian this morning, you have reasons a plenty to rejoice in the Lord.
2. Pray for Everything (v 6,7)
After rejoicing, Paul then tells us that we need to start praying: ‘Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.’
So Paul’s second antidote to anxiety is prayer. Not just praying about a few special or particularly difficult situations but in every situation. No situation is unworthy of prayer. Just think about some of the many different situations you face in the course of an ordinary day. Getting the children off to school, getting yourself to work, dealing with your difficult boss, sorting out that challenging situation at work, wondering what say at that important meeting, deciding on how to witness to your next door neighbour, working out how to use your holiday and so on.
‘Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.’
All these situations and many more besides can be occasions for prayer. Think through your own day. What are the situations that make you anxious? Then ask, ‘How can I turn my anxiety into prayer?’
In the middle of this week, I realised that I was not practicing what I was about to preach about. I had things on my mind I was anxious about but had not prayed about. So I sat down and made a list of things that were causing me anxiety at that moment. When I got to 10 I decided that was enough.
They included things as trivial as whether the Lions were going to beat Australia in the final test in Sydney to getting this sermon finished to whether I had really understood the basis of our salvation. This last concern was stirred up by a book I am currently reading by Tim Keller. I then went through my list in prayer – and although nothing changed immediately in the things I was praying about I did feel less anxious and more peaceful – able to trust God more. I can recommend this as an exercise.
Notice that Paul speaks about prayer as requests. He tells us to ‘present our requests to God’. When we pray we don’t demand that God does this or that. We request God to act in ways that will bring honour to his name and that will be in our long term best interest. That is quite likely to mean that he answers prayers in ways we don’t expect – and perhaps even don’t want. Sometimes the best answer he can give to our prayers is ‘no’. But by trusting him with the things that make us anxious, we can know his peace - as I found.
I came across a story this week about a father who had a daughter born with cerebral palsy. Not surprisingly he felt bitter about it and struggled to pray for her healing. In fact God didn’t heal her but used her illness to help the father and his wife build relationships with the neighbours in the district into which they had just moved, and in the process to strengthen that community. He said this:
‘In that community full of people who told us we were the answer to their prayers, I was able to get over my bitterness and see my daughter as the incredible gift she was. My job was to care for her, not cure her.’
Notice also that it is prayer ‘with thanksgiving’. It is of course good to say ‘thank you’ for the good things we receive, as every child is taught by its parents. And what is true for earthly children is also true for heavenly children.
But giving thanks for what God has already done also increases our faith that God can answer our prayers again. Thanksgiving makes us bolder in our praying.
Writing about this verse, the Christian commentator R A Torrey wrote this:
‘Doubtless the reason so many have so little faith when they pray, is because they take so little time to meditate upon and thank God for blessings already received. As one meditates upon the answers to prayers already granted, faith waxes bolder and bolder, and we come to feel in the very depths of our souls that there is nothing too hard for the Lord.’
I mentioned my exercise of writing down and praying about the things I was anxious about. In the spirit of this verse, I also wrote down some things I was thankful for. Getting down a list of 10 things for which I was thankful took a little longer – but I got there. On my list were things like my friends, my family, the knowledge that I am saved and so on. And then as part of my exercise in prayer, I will through this list too, giving thanks to God for the many different ways he has blessed me. Again, a great thing to do.
So Paul’s second antidote to anxiety is to pray for everything - with thanksgiving.
3. Think about Praiseworthy Things (v 8,9)
At first glance it is difficult to see where Paul’s third antidote fits alongside the other two. We can perhaps see how rejoicing and praying will combat anxiety, but thinking?
Listen to what he says: 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. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me – put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
So Paul directly links a state of peace, or a state where the God of peace is with us, with what we think about. How can right thinking combat anxiety?
One of the most neglected aspects of our spiritual development is the development of our minds. And yet our minds play a crucial part in our Christian maturity. Listen to what Paul says in Romans 12. ‘Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.’
So the way we use our minds – the things we think about and how we think about them – is critical to our transformation into the likeness of Christ and to our understanding of God’s will. To live in the will of God requires us to know that will - and that requires a transformed mind.
So, coming back to Philippians 4, I think we can say that the things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely and admirable are the kind of things we should be using our minds on - because they help us to understand more about God’s will and his ways. And to combat the things that destroy our peace.
What are these things? The problem with this verse is that it is very often taken out of context. It becomes a verse to quote when you want Christians to be more engaged culturally, to be discerning about what is going on in the world around us and to ensure that we dwell on things that are praiseworthy.
That is important. But I don’t think that is what Paul is talking about first and foremost. The problem is that nothing in the world will pass Paul’s test of being true, noble, pure, right, lovely and admirable – since everything is soiled by sin.
For Paul what is most praiseworthy – what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely and admirable - is the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ that he has been talking about in the previous chapter. The gospel we were thinking about last week. The good news that our very best efforts will always fall short of God standards, we can be made right with God through faith in Christ.
We need to use our minds to understand more and more of the gospel and more and more of how it applies to our lives.
Listen to what Tim Keller says in his excellent new book, Center Church:
‘You must let the gospel argue with you. You must let the gospel sink down deeply until it changes your views and the structures of your motivation. You must be trained and disciplined by the gospel.’
We can do that by carefully and prayerfully reading our Bibles and using our minds to understand more and more of what the word of God is teaching. We can do that by reading good books and by listening to good sermons that help us to understand more of what the gospel is about. If you were not here last Sunday evening, a good place to start would be to listen to the podcast of Paul Worth’s sermon on the Joy of the Gospel where he unpacks Philippians 3. We can do that by attending a home group or Bible study and working with others on the meaning of different texts of scripture.
And the more we understand the gospel and how it applies to our lives, the less liable we will be to be overcome by anxiety as we face the trails of life and more liable we will be to know God’s joy.
‘Think about such things, says Paul, ‘and the God of peace will be with you.
I think this text does have wider application. Not everything is our world is praiseworthy. There is plenty that is not. Plenty that is untrue, ignoble, impure or unlovely. And the problem is that we can spend too much of our time and attention on these things. Whether they are on the tv or the internet or in the cinema or wherever. Dwelling on these things will take us further away from God’s will and further away from his peace.
We need to be discerning about how we engage critically with the world around us and where we focus our thoughts.
Developing our mental and spiritual muscles to identify and consider what is praiseworthy and to identify and reject what is not is part of what it means to grow in Christian maturity. If we do we are far less liable to be undermined by what is going on in the world around us. And the result of that is that we are far less likely to become anxious - because we are more confident about God’s will for our lives.
Conclusion.
According to Wikipedia, Anxiety is an ‘unpleasant state of inner turmoil and apprehension, often accompanied by nervous behaviour, such as pacing back and forth, somatic complaints and rumination. It is the subjectively unpleasant feelings of dread over something unlikely to happen, such as the feeling of imminent death. Anxiety is feeling unrealistic fear, worry, and uneasiness, usually generalized and unfocused. It is often accompanied by restlessness, fatigue, problems in concentration, and muscular tension.’
I am sure that all of us at different times feel anxious. And as we have seen just in this letter, even Paul at times was anxious, particularly about the well fare of other people.
But God does not want us to live in a state of anxiety but rather in a state of peace and joy.
Do you want your life to be marked by peace and joy rather than anxiety? If you do, you should be making much God’s antidotes to anxiety.
• Rejoicing in all that God has done, is doing and will do for you.
• Praying in any and every situation, asking God to help and protect you and fulfil his will in you – and giving thanks for answers to prayer you have already received
• And devoting your mind to think about praiseworthy things, in particular the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ
I started with a quote from Augustine. Let me finish with another one:
“Man is one of your creatures, Lord, and his instinct is to praise you….The thought of you stirs him so deeply that he cannot be content unless he praises you, because you made us for yourself and our hearts find no peace until they rest in you.”
