Think on These Things
Last time we were together I spoke about prayer and how right praying can lead to right thinking which will lead to the peace of God that passes understanding with your heart and mind being guarded like a fortress against anxiety and fear.
How I didn’t want to fail God by falling into anxiety and how preparing for Bible Study and being in the Word and right praying freed me from on-coming anxiety.
One of my greatest issues is that I am a fixer. If I or someone else has a problem I go into my fix mode.
The problem with the fix mode is that it puts a lot of pressure on the fixer. The fixer starts to feel responsible.
Like when your child is sick. It is up to you to determine certain facts. Is there a fever, a rash, loss of appetite, listlessness, or pain? After that determination, do I think this is a virus or bacterial? If viral should I take him/her to the doctor or wait it out at home? Am I missing something? Is there something else I should do?
And you know if you call the pediatrician they are going to tell you to bring him in. And then you have to pay for the visit for them to tell you it is viral and they will get better on their own. Or you have had the experience that 24 hours later they have an infection that requires treatment.
So for me, it is the sense of responsibility that puts me into anxiety/fear.
I decided a few years back to take a greater leap of faith regarding this sense of responsibility that I put on myself. I put it back on God. I would ask Him that if there was anything I needed to know or do that He would make it so obvious that I couldn’t miss it.
I do this with my children as well. I ask God if there is anything I need to know about what is going on with them that He will either reveal it to me, or to them or to someone else in their lives that they can safely turn to. I ask Him to reveal sin to me about myself and about them.
We love and serve a faithful God. James 1 says that if anyone lacks wisdom that we are to ask and that God will give generously and He does.
Those of you who were here when I taught on the book of James remember how I (and God) emphasize that sin begins in the mind. Taking control of thought life is critical to the Christian walk.
“As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” Proverbs 27:3
“Out of the heart, the mouth speaks.” Matthew 12:34
Paul is concluding his letter to the Philippians and he wants to put in one or two powerful thoughts.
8 “Finally, brothers, 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. 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.”
Since sin is conceived in the mind Paul recognizes that we need to take control of what we do think about. Here he gives us a list of what we should be dwelling on.
Think about the right things (v. 8)
• the true—the truth about God’s Word.
• the noble— things that have the dignity of moral excellence;
• the just—those things that conform to God’s standards;
• the pure—those things that are free of sin;
• the lovely(the loveable)—those virtues that make believers attractive and winsome, such as generosity, kindness, compassion and willingness to forgive;
• the things of good report—those things that give Christians a good reputation and a good name.
Paul sums it all up by telling his readers to meditate on anything of virtue and anything worthy of praise.
In the absence of Biblical convictions we go the way of culture. Repeat.
If you are not daily checking your thought life with the truth of the Word you won’t be able to discern whatsoever is true, noble, just, pure, lovely and of good report.
Nothing is neutral! What we read, what we look at on line, what we watch on TV or movies, the music we listen to. ( Lady Antebellum, Need you now, ~I’m a little drunk and I need you now) Nothing is neutral. Unless we continually check our standards with God’s standards we will go the way of culture.
And where is culture going?
Sex in the City, Desperate Housewives, Jersey Shore, Glee….the list goes on and on and on.
At this point I want to bring up one more thought about our thought lives.
Women are by nature plagued with insecurity and comparisons. We are given a set of values at an early age and whether we realize it or not those values impact us and we pass those values onto our children.
Some values are great to pass along to others, some are not.
In my family of origin, here were some of our values:
Family
Hard work
Success~ defined by higher education and money
Beauty for the girls
Athleticism for the boys
Some of these values are good values, some of them are not. At one point in my walk with Christ I began to weigh what I believed to be truth with what God’s word had to say about it.
Because of certain things that I began to believe about myself at a young age, I have a continual tape running in my head.
For years I didn’t even realize the voices I was listening to as false because they were my truth, they were a part of my very DNA. Then the more I began to examine what that tape was saying the more I realized that I was listening to lies.
And who is the father of lies?
You need to replace the lies you believe with the truth of who you are to God.
For some of you, this will be easy. For others, it may be a daily battle depending on how much scaring has been a part of your past.
Thought life is crucial to the Christian walk. It has to be taken seriously and it has to brought into submission.
Paul concludes this set of instructions to the church with these words: ‘The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you’ (v. 9).
This is the third time that Paul has explicitly called his readers to follow his example (2:17–18; 3:17).
The Christian life is to be one of action. We are told not to be just hearers of the word but doers as well.
So now that he has fully explained himself and written the letter he is telling the Philippian church to ACT.
Thanks for Their Gifts
“10 I rejoice greatly in the Lord that at last you have renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you have been concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. 11 I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13 I can do everything through him who gives me strength.”
What is the secret of being content?
His acceptance of his circumstances!
Since Paul’s primary objective to his life is toshare the Gospel and he doesn’t care what happens to him as long as he gets to tell people about Jesus, then he doesn’t care what his circumstances are as long as they further the cause of Christ. He looks at every difficulty as an opportunity.
The other secret to contentment is that no matter what our circumstances, no matter where we find ourselves, God will give us the strength to do whatever we are called to do. “I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.” And Paul should know, right?
Read 14-end.
He goes on to thank the church at Philippi for caring about him and putting their caring into action.
How often do we have charitable impulses that we ignore or never get to it? We need to act when the Holy Spirit prompts us to act. We need to give generously, esp. to those in the ministry!
Verse 19 is one of the great promises of the Bible. And hear the intimacy that Paul speaks:
“And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.”
Not some of our needs, but all of them! A reminder that if we have Christ, we have all that He has at our disposal if He so wills it. In material things, God has promised to supply all our needs. But in spiritual matters, God is ready to bless us in abundance!
And that is a great way to conclude the letter to the Philippian church. God is ready, willing and able to bless us with every spiritual blessing!
James Allen wrote a book based on the thought of Proverbs 23:7 entitled, As a Man Thinketh. Here are some of his thoughts:
Mind is the Master power that molds and makes,
And Man is Mind, and evermore he takes
The tool of Thought, and, shaping what he wills,
Brings forth a thousand joys, a thousand ills: —
He thinks in secret, and it comes to pass:
Environment is but his looking-glass.
Quotes From As a Man Thinketh
~Men do not attract what they want, but what they are.
~A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts.
~Cherish your visions. Cherish your ideals. Cherish the music that stirs in your heart, the beauty that forms in your mind, the loveliness that drapes your purest thoughts, for out of them will grow all delightful conditions, all heavenly environment, of these, if you but remain true to them your world will at last be built.
~The soul attracts that which it secretly harbors, that which it loves, and also that which it fears. It reaches the height of its cherished aspirations. It falls to the level of its unchastened desires - and circumstances are the means by which the soul receives its own.
~Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves, they therefore remain bound.
~Every action and feeling is preceded by a thought.
~Right thinking begins with the words we say to ourselves.
~Circumstance does not make the man, it reveals him to himself.
~You cannot travel within and stand still without.
~As the physically weak man can make himself strong by careful and patient training, so the man of weak thoughts, can make them strong by exercising himself in right thinking.
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