Introduction
Is God in control, or isn’t He? Sometimes we aren’t sure, or we forget. Sometimes we think we are, or should or need to be, in control.
What if it rains on my picnic? What if someone doesn’t show up? What if they don’t like me? What if I burn the casserole? What if we run out of food? What if I strike out and we lose the game? What if I get stuck in traffic and I’m late? What if I lose my job?
Some of these things we can do something about, some we can’t. Either way, are WE really in control of it? Do we really WANT to be in control of it? We might think we do, but that is a lot of responsibility, and it’s responsibility that isn’t really ours. We’re not really built for bearing that kind of responsibility.
And we know deep down that we are not in control. But this disconnect with what we think we want and what really is true can cause us anxiety.
Fortunately, there is an answer. There is a cure for this anxiety. God!
Today, I’ll talk about anxiety and what the Bible says we are supposed to do about it. We’ll be focusing on Philipians 4:1-9, with a few other passages drawn in, including something that Jesus Himself told us about anxiety.
The Scripture - Philipians 4:1-9
4 Therefore, my beloved brethren [a]whom I long to see, my joy and crown, in this way stand firm in the Lord, my beloved.
2 I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to [b]live in harmony in the Lord. 3 Indeed, true companion, I ask you also to help these women who have shared my struggle in the cause of the gospel, together with Clement also and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.
2 I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to [b]live in harmony in the Lord. 3 Indeed, true companion, I ask you also to help these women who have shared my struggle in the cause of the gospel, together with Clement also and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.
4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! 5 Let your gentlespirit be known to all men. The Lord is [c]near. 6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all [d]comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philipians 4:4-7 NASB)
8 Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is [e]lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, [f]dwell on these things. 9 The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
Explanation
Paul was writing to the first church in Europe, which held a special place in his heart. “Crown” here meant the kind that an athlete would receive when winning. Then he urged specific members to resolve their differences, apparently about something non-critical, and reminding the reader of their work for Christ together and that they are all Christians.
Next he commands us to rejoice in the Lord always, and he repeats it. He begins chapter 3 in the same way, and says that to write the same things again is no trouble. Why? Because repetition of God’s truth is good for us, keeps us on track. And why should we rejoice? One reason is to be a good Christian witness. People need to see our joy at the glory of God. And our Christian behavior needs to be directed toward all people, not just other Christians. ESV says “reasonableness”. KJV says “moderation”. NLT says “considerate” and HCSB says “graciousness”.
Then he tells us that the Lord is near. This could be something to rejoice about, or it could be the reason for the next verse - be anxious for nothing. We can be comforted in being reassured that the Lord is near. He’s so near in fact, that He is within each of us.
And not only is he near, he wants to hear about everything - everything. We must pray, make our requests and show our gratitude to God. Everything. We should thank Him for His forgiveness, we should pray about what we need now, both for the body and the spirit, and for God to guide us in the future. His love wants what is best for us. His wisdom knows what that is. His power can make it happen. Also, we should include thanks, not just for what he has done and will do for us, but simply that he wants to listen to us. And we need to believe that he will give us not just an answer, but the best answer.
What is the result? Our anxiety is cured. We receive the peace of God, a peace that will guard your heart and mind like a soldier, in Christ Jesus. And this peace defies human understanding. Humans can never produce this kind of peace, no matter what they do. Good ideas will never free us from worry like God’s peace. God can do much more than we can ever ask, or even think. His power is unfathomable. And we need to be comfortable with our lack of understanding. Sometimes, we just won’t understand - and that’s okay. He’s God, I’m not.
Then Paul lists the kinds of behavior to model. “Good repute” is also translated as “virtue” or “morally pure”, which is interesting here because it was something the Gentiles and heathens talked about. So he’s saying that we shouldn’t be ashamed to learn good things from others, maybe the poor, different races, etc., don’t let them outdo you in goodness. Keep anything that is good, here “worthy of praise” means “suitable to be seen by God”. So Paul is acknowledging that there are behaviors not spelled out in the Law that are suitable to be seen by God. Also, practice what you saw me doing. Paul’s life and his doctrine were one and the same. He didn’t claim to be perfect. We see in chapter 3 that he acknowledges his imperfection. But he also says that he is in this race and always focused on the finish line.
Do the things that would cause others to speak well of you. But getting them to speak well of you isn’t your goal, of course. Speaking well of God and realizing He really is who they should be living for really is the goal.
Illustration
2008, PPL was going to have layoffs. I was in a technical group, but the least technical person in it. I’d gotten there through my own efforts, with a goal of being promoted, to have my excellence recognized. However, the supervisor I’d talked into taking me had moved on to another spot, and I was on my second supervisor since then. I was not very busy and couldn’t find more work to get involved in. I wasn’t feeling very valuable to the company at that time. I felt like my house was built on sand (although I would not have used that reference then). I had three very young children and a wife to support. Anxious is an accurate description of how I felt.
When I talked with people, my anxiety was evident. I showed it, I talked about it, I perseverated. If I had been a professed Christian, I would not have made it look too attractive.
Thankfully, I kept my job. I really had nothing to worry about. The people who were let go were generally those who had been waiting for the retirement package (which they got) and those people who really needed to be let go.
Fast forward to 2014. PPL was splitting into two companies. All positions within IT were going to be posted and we’d have to apply for them. Of course people who currently held them had an advantage. I was in a group that was going away because the strategy of IT had changed, so there was no job for which I had the advantage. Externally, the circumstances were very similar.
But internally, things were very different. I was now living the Christian life, and spending time in the Word and in fellowship with other Christians. I knew what a Christian was supposed to be behave, and I knew and believed God’s promises. I based my view of my value on what God says, rather than on what I could do for the company. God had given me many gifts that were valuable to the company. I had faith that he would provide for me and my family as he promises.
I saw 2014 as an opportunity. I’d been in IT infrastructure the whole time I was at PPL, and I didn’t fit there. I had the opportunity to apply for jobs that would be better fits for me, with managers I respected. I was confident that God would put me where he wanted me. If it wasn’t at PPL, that would be okay. He’d lead me where I needed to go.
I ended up with a job. The job was not what I’d wanted. In fact, I was still in Infrastructure, but working for a better manager, a Christian man who I’d actually talked to about a year earlier about opportunities in his group. My experience in Infrastructure was valuable as the company changed. I was grateful that I could still support my family, but bored in my job. But now I knew how to handle this situation. No anxiety - prayer. Ask God what I was supposed to do. Investigate other jobs and trust that if God wanted me to move to another company, he’d put things in motion to make it happen. I continued to fellowship with other Christians, who reminded me that God had provided a job to do for me what a job is supposed to do. It doesn’t provide my identity, it keeps a roof over my head and food on the table.
Eventually, things changed again. The boring position I had was going to be phased out. I saw anxiety in some of my coworkers. If that position went away, what were they going to do? I on the other hand, knew God would provide. He was actually providing the way out of that boring position. After working with my manager for a year, he knew what I was good at, and put me in a spot that capitalized on all of my strengths. What a blessing!
I realize that not everyone’s story ends like this, and that mine isn’t over yet. But the point here is the difference in my outlook in very similar circumstances. I knew not to be anxious, and what to do instead. I could have lost my job. If I lost my job, I could lose my house, my kids would have to stop their activities, what would we eat, what would we do, there was so much uncertainty. The world would say that being worried and terrified was appropriate, like I’d been in 2008. But I had the peace of God that surpassed human understanding. It kept my head clearer, and let me keep my eyes open for what God was going to do in my life, looking forward to the adventure.
Application
Rejoice in the Lord. Joy in God is critical in the life of a Christian. It is a great privilege. Perspective is vital. We know what we have been saved from. In a podcast on frame of reference, I heard a woman talking about growing up with her mother, a Holocaust survivor. Whenever she’d talk about the typical hardships of childhood and adolescence, her mother would say “when your friends and family have been made into skin lamps, come and talk to me.” A man whose father was an immigrant from a war-torn nation said that nothing that happened in America seemed to bother the father. The son being bullied in school, the family car having its windows smashed, the father asked what he was complaining about. He wasn’t being shot at, no one was stealing their food. Our frame of reference needs to be one of knowing what it is we deserve, and what it is that God has given us through no effort of our own.
Rejoice in the Lord. He is near. How do we feel when a special person is simply nearby? It could be a person we had a crush on, it could be a celebrity, it could be a baby, it could be our favorite aunt or uncle. We get excited, we feel joy. The Creator of the universe is near, is within us. Wow! Not only is he near us, he wants a relationship with YOU. Not just humanity in general, he wants to hear from YOU. He wants what only you have.
God wants me. That’s proof that I am valuable, I’m special. That’s cause to rejoice, and I get to brag about that. Okay, no I can’t. The fact that I deserve something else and that I did nothing to earn this value keeps me humble. Just like everyone else, I have fallen short and have no reason to boast.
The truth is that God wants this same relationship with every single person. I can boast about what God is able to do. He is able to have an individual relationship with every single person who has ever existed. My grandmother, the one who worried I’d be short, only had one child. She didn’t think a parent could love more than one as much as she loved one. Those of us with more than one know that love isn’t like a finite pie - if I give you a bigger piece, I have to give someone else a smaller one. God is not finite. He can make more pies. He’s got all the time, all the energy, all the attention, all of all.
So now that we’re rejoicing, what else does Paul say we should do? We must show it to everyone else. God wants to have relationships with each of them too. They are valuable and special too. Every single one of them. We are to show them our gentle spirit (NASB), ESV says “reasonableness”. KJV says “moderation”. NLT says “consideration” and HCSB says “graciousness”. If we really are rejoicing about our relationship with God and understand the right perspective, this should be pretty easy. If we understand the magnitude of the difference between God and ourselves, we’ll see that there aren’t scales sensitive enough to measure the difference between others and ourselves or between people we like and people we don’t. So much about the world is putting people into groups of “us” and “the others”. The truth is, God wants everyone. Every one who is saved, used to be an “other”.
Matthew 6:22-23 says
22 “The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is [k]clear, your whole body will be full of light.23 But if your eye is [l]bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
I suggest there are two ways to read this, from the outside in and from the inside out. If you are not rejoicing on the inside, it will be evident to others. But also, if you see darkness everywhere, maybe the problem is your eye.
So we need to rejoice, and we need to show our Christian gentle spirit to those that God has saved and those that he wants to save. Philipians 4:6 tells us that while doing that, we are not to be anxious for anything. We need to not worry. In Matthew 6:25, Jesus commands us not to worry:
25 “For this reason I say to you, [n]do not be worried about your [o]life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
Jesus goes on to describe how God takes care of the birds and the flowers, assuring us that since we are more valuable to God than these, we can be sure He will take care of our needs. Then He tells us:
32 For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.33 But [s]seek first [t]His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be [u]added to you.
34 “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will[v]care for itself. [w]Each day has enough trouble of its own.
We often hear that God never gives us more than we can handle. Really, He never gives us more than He can handle. And He gives us everything we need for Him to handle it. But He doesn’t usually give it to us ahead of time. He’s a “just-in-time” kind of guy. He gives us today our daily bread for today, and He’ll give us tomorrow our daily bread for tomorrow.
This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be concerned about anything at all. We don’t get to just sit around and expect what we need to fall out of the sky. Sometimes the way He provides for us is by giving us abilities and talents such we can use to get what what we need. We know we are supposed to have healthy concern for things because elsewhere in Scripture, it says so.
Ephesians 5:15-18 15 See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise,HCSB 15 - Pay careful attention to how you walk
16 redeeming the time, NASB 16 - make the most of your time. because the days are evil.
17 Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lordis.
And lest we think a good cure for anxiety is self-medication, verse 18 tells us 18 And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit,
NLT 18 - drunkenness will ruin your life
HCSB 18 - drunkenness leads to reckless actions
NIV 18 - drunkenness leads to debauchery
So we know that we’re supposed to care, but not too much, and that getting drunk isn’t answer. We also know that we’re supposed to make the most of our time.
People worry they don’t have enough time - people who say they don’t have time very often don’t have their priorities straight.
Examples
- Christmas - cookies, cards, gifts, decorating
- Weddings - all the planning - we started with church and reception site, then gave jobs to many people, who were excited we asked. And then we weren’t anxious about exactly how they would do things. We also had thunderstorms like the ones we had last week. The rain during dinner and the photographer made us go outside to get pictures, which turned out beautiful. But we didn’t get to eat. But most importantly, when the day was finished, we were married and celebrated with our friends and family.
Examples
- Christmas - cookies, cards, gifts, decorating
- Weddings - all the planning - we started with church and reception site, then gave jobs to many people, who were excited we asked. And then we weren’t anxious about exactly how they would do things. We also had thunderstorms like the ones we had last week. The rain during dinner and the photographer made us go outside to get pictures, which turned out beautiful. But we didn’t get to eat. But most importantly, when the day was finished, we were married and celebrated with our friends and family.
Planning is fine, but over-planning crowds out God. We need to have our priorities in order, so we know when to alter our plans. Last week in Sunday school, we talked about a virtuoso violinist who played in a subway station during morning rush hour and few noticed. They had to get to work. That’s true, and we are supposed to be conscientious about our responsibilities. But God might have other ideas. His love makes him want the best for us. His wisdom makes him know what is best for us. Remember, maybe we didn't get our plan right.
"For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope." Jeremiah 29:11-12
Is He in control or isn’t He?
We have to leave room for Him and what He has planned for us. Changing our plans can often cause us anxiety, can’t it? I know when I have a plan, I don’t like anyone questioning it once it’s in motion. However, If I know I’m changing my plans for the right reasons, I don’t usually have anxiety over the things I’m not doing.
So how do we know if we have our priorities straight?
Verse 6, after telling us not to be anxious, tells us to pray, be thankful, and make our requests known to God. Remember when I said that God wants you? He thinks you’re valuable? What do you do when people you value talk to you? You listen! God listens. He wants to hear from you. Does he NEED to hear from you in order to know what you want or need? Of course not. He knows it before we do, and better than we do. But he WANTS to hear from us. And then verse 7 tells us that we will have peace that surpasses all understanding. That sounds like the opposite of anxiety to me.
So if we have that kind of peace, we very likely have our priorities in order.
And then in verse 9, Paul gives us some guidance on setting our priorities, what kinds of things to put our attention on.
What if we think we’ve done what we’re supposed to, but we’re still feeling anxious?
Consider the following tips to help use your belief to overcome anxiety:
- Pray For more than relief Praying for relief of anxiety isn't truly living with God's plan. Belief is what helps you overcome anxiety, and strength of that trust is what allows you to feel less fear. Praying that God simply relieves your anxiety may actually make it worse, because God does believe in personal effort, and anxiety isn't something He is going to simply wash away. Ask Him to tell you if there is something else you should be doing. Ask if the He is trying to tell you something with the anxiety. Examples: when we didn’t go to PSU in 2004, and when I didn’t go on PPRAC at the beginning in 2015.
- Make sure you get to Church Church represents a constant reminder of your relationship with God. It's not just about making sure that you do what you need to do to get into Heaven and show God you love Him. It's also about making sure that you are reminded of your belief as often as possible, so that you are able to keep that relationship strong with each passing day. And your Christian brethren are there. Fellowship helps.
- Take Care of Your Body "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own - you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body." 1 Corinthians 6:19-20. Exercising and taking care of your body is actually ordered by God, and exercise is something that is known to cure anxiety. It is not a coincidence that God requires it. One of my methods when I’m anxious or ornery is to ride my bike away from my house until the feeling goes away, then I turn around and come back home. By the time I get home, my mood is great.
- Volunteer Living for someone other than yourself is also a part of showing glory to God. Volunteering is a constant reminder of the values of humanity, which will bring you closer to your beliefs and build the Christian relationship inside of you. Find something you're passionate about and volunteer to it and see a real different in the way you find happiness in the world. Serving makes us happy. It can also help with our frame of reference, our perspective.
- Focus on Your Beliefs Finally, learn to get more in touch with the beliefs that you already have. The truth is that your beliefs can always be nurtured. Write down the beliefs that are important for showing faith in your Christianity, and continue to work towards them often so that you can continue to build on what you need to in order to rid yourself of anxiety.
The Christian relationship is a powerful one, and something that you can nurture in such a way that your anxiety is more likely to be countered as a result. Learn to address the beliefs that Christianity harbors and you may find that your anxiety is reduced as a result.
Also, don’t forget to take advantage of what's available on this earth. Remember that God blessed the world with psychologists, medicines, research - these are not something that need to be looked at as an enemy to belief. Rather, they're something that God has offered as a way to improve upon one's life. You're not insulting God by looking to others for help. You're showing God that you're thankful for the help that He's made available to the world.
Conclusion
Anxiety is painful. It’s a sign that we’re concerned about something that we either shouldn’t be concerned with, or we concerned about it in a way we shouldn’t. We need to get our focus where it needs to be - on the Lord. We do that through prayer and supplication and thanksgiving. As we’re praying, we need to realize exactly whose attention we have. That should help with the anxiety.
Also, we might worry about what other people think of us. Paul gives us some very practical guidance on how to live, so we won’t need to worry about what people think. And also, if we keep our focus on things that are good, our focus won’t be on the thing that is making us anxious.
Remember, God always gives us what we need. And is He in control, or isn’t He? Whose responsibility is it to control everything? If He really is in control, do we really have anything to be anxious about?
Are you anxious about something? Are you anxious about everything? Let the Lord be in control and give you His peace that surpasses human understanding. If you haven’t already accepted Jesus into your heart, today is the day. Let Him start sharing His peace with you today.
