Sometimes I feel like Philippians was written just for me as many of my struggles and deserate need of encouragement can be met with a readied answer within its verses. It is my absolute favourite book of the Bible containing many precious jewels within its four short chapters. It is one book I would love to one day memories and fully live out in my life. Philippians models joy while struggling, models the example of Christ and persevering under hardship, all of these I find vastly difficult and fail at continually.
The words “Don’t worry or fret”, in chapter 4, cut to my heart that is tightly wound up in the anxieties of today and the fears of the future. Recently, while listening to a sermon, the preacher stated, “Fear turns us into false prophets. It compels us to look into the future to predict only that which is the worst-case scenario, and then to live fearful of it.” Another friend has recently shared with me that fears and worrying are “Looking into the future without seeing God”. Worry has never done anything positive for me, nor will it solve the predicament I am in – rather it will probably make circumstances worse and appear larger than they actually are, so that my grain of worry will quickly snowball into something out of control and that is not what I need in my life.
Instead, the passage goes on to declare, that worries should be turned into prayers. Ever heard of the expression “Turn your frown upside down”? A similar maneuver needs to be used with our worries and anxious thoughts. Instead of letting them penetrate us inwardly, going deep down into our minds and affecting our lives, we need to turn them around into prayers to our Father. Even though the church of Philippi was struggling the words of hope and affirmation abound in this passage of the peace that can replace the worries if they are just surrendered fully to God.
“Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the centre of your life.”
What happens when worry has no place in our life? It frees our mind and our heart to actively engage in what we are meant to be living for, allowing space to be made whole in Jesus Christ. It sweeps out the cobwebs and mess that so quickly overwhelms us and holds us back and allows room for something else to fill its place. The old has gone and the new comes in. Removing worry lets your thinking become clearer, providing the appropriate environment to begin “filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious”.
I struggle with the challenge of focusing on the things of God, things that edify my life and spur me on, as the worries and fears drown out the truth. Wouldn’t it be a better strategy to fill my mind with Godly thoughts rather than clutter my head with what is not from God? Why do I hold on to the mess? He calls us to focus on “the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse”. My mind finds it easier to focus on the later than the former, just proving how much my mind needs to be molded and changed by Him.
Thankfully He doesn’t require me or any of us to get it all right on our own and then come to Him. He pours out His grace on us and we need to accept that grace rather than staying trapped in the fact that we don’t deserve it. I know for a fact that I am a failure, but in Him I am His success story. The truth is I don’t do it alone, it is a daily task of transformation that is led by Him. It's taking steps towards His good purpose, walking in step with Him and putting “into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized.” All that head knowledge needs to actually take root and become heart knowledge, truths that can be built ontop of. We have a firm foundation in Jesus Christ, it is time to start believing in what is true, applying it to our own lives and living it out.
The promise at the end of these verses always fills my heart with hope. That the work He is doing in me is not in vein. It is not to be viewed as punishment that I journey though difficult times. Nor am I just getting the minimum of God grace, because His grace was laviously poured out through His altimate sacrifice. The promise is a glorious one full of blessing. “God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.”. It brings tears to my eyes to just think that God can turn my noisy life into exquisite music. That He could orchestrate the steps and bring it all together with such sweetness and beauty. At times all I hear is a clanging or streaky of an unharmonious mess and I doubt any beauty in my commotion. But He is filling in my missing sounds, conducting the symphony of my life, and He promises to use even this mess to add to this orchestra of sound that He plays to bring Him honour and glory.
How I so often fall short of all He has for me. I close myself off, hover in my lowly state and in pits of self-pity rather than reveling in Him. If only I could do as Paul so passionately conveys to the church and even thousands of years later to you and me? God’s word echoing through the ages asking us to submit our worries to Him, fix our thoughts on Him and rejoice with Him in His almighty plans for our lives. It's it amazing to imagine how worries can vanish into sweet music, but how much greater would it be to witness it as we live our lives for Him rather than for our own concerns. That nothing at all can mess up His plan for us. We so often sell God short on what He is actually doing in every circumstance that we miss out on hearing what He is creating. Worries prevent me from resting in my Heavenly Father and just allowing Him to play sweet melodies over my broken life as I may dance and rejoice in Him.
