The secret of contentment; Phil. 4: 10-13

Last week I shared with you a message about overcoming anxiety and depression.  And in so doing I also ended up sharing with you some of my personal testimony.  I did so, not to try to elicit some sort of sympathy, but because I felt that having gone through these things, it qualified me to be able to speak to you not just from a theoretical point of view, or even a theological point of view, but from the voice of personal experience.

As it turns out, I guess God wasn’t finished teaching me.  On Monday, following my message on Sunday, I ended up having a heart attack and spent the next couple of days or so in the hospital. But I am happy to say that God did give me a peace that passed all understanding as I went through that ordeal. 

As we discovered last week, the opposite of anxiety and depression is peace.  And in Philippians 4 we find that the God of peace offers us the peace of God, which passes all understanding, to those who have learned to put their trust in God, in spite of whatever circumstances they may find themselves. 

So today is really just a continuation of that message.  But what we are going to look at in more detail  today is how the peace of God is achieved on a practical level.  And Paul tells us here that the peace that God provides is called contentment. 

Now, contentment is almost a foreign idea in American society today.  We are programmed from birth to be anything but content.  In fact, in our culture we tend to look down on people who are content as non achievers, as being practically delinquent.  We are expected to be ambitious, to be climbers, to be striving to get ahead.  That is the American way.

I can remember a couple of job interviews I went to back in my younger days, when I was working in the luxury hotel field.  And during a typical interview with the VP of a hotel chain, invariably they would ask the question;  “Where do you see yourself in the next five years?”  And you were expected to give them some sort of answer that showed that you were ambitious, that you had aspirations of climbing to the top.  I found out the hard way that they used that mentality to offer you a carrot on stick to get you to work 6 days a week, 80 hours a week for terrible pay, in the hope that if you did a good job you would get a promotion and start your climb through the corporate ranks.

But this is the American way.  Being discontent has become a way of life. Our materialistic culture basically is trying to keep us dissatisfied, so they can sell us a new product.  We haven’t managed to even learn how to use our iphones yet and they are already trying to sell you on a better one.  And unfortunately, we buy into it.  We have created an environment in which we live our lives in expectation of a better tomorrow.  We buy and borrow and live today in expectation that we will be able to pay for it tomorrow.  Because we are told we really need it today, and so we borrow to buy it, financing our discontent on the promise of a better tomorrow.  We are bred in discontent, so we scuttle our marriage and leave our wives or our husbands in search of a better mate.  We sacrifice homes and families to fulfill our unfulfilled desires that are set aflame by what Hollywood and crass commercialism tells us is necessary for happiness and fulfillment. 

Our parents somehow made do with a tiny ranch houses with 3 shoebox bedrooms and one bathroom and yet raised four kids.  They got by with just one car and just one job.  Dad worked 5 days a week, Monday through Friday, 9 to 5, and had time on weekends to take us fishing or camping or something.  Mom stayed home and took care of the kids and found time to actually keep her own house and cook 99% of the meals from scratch.  We had one phone that was attached to the wall.  We had one black and white tv with only 3 channels.  And yet in spite of such deprivation, life wasn’t all that bad. 

Today, Dad and Mom both work full time jobs because they are convinced they need two incomes.  So they need to hire a maid to come in and clean the house.  They need child care for the kids and put them in every after school program that they can find because they need to work late.  To compensate for all of them going helter skelter in every direction they need to buy a cell phone for everyone in the family.  They need 3 cars, all of them less than 5 years old.  They need to live in a 4 bedroom, 3 bath house with a two car garage, yet they only have 2 kids.  Family dinner is a thing of the past, now it’s in the fridge or on the stove when you get in. They have four tvs and 100 channels and nothing good is on.  Everyone needs their own computer.  And yet in spite of meeting all these needs, they are still dissatisfied.  The divorce rate is higher than 50%.  Drunkenness and drug addiction among our children is rampant, and as a society we are like a runaway train that is careening off the tracks.

It’s no wonder depression and anxiety are at epidemic proportions.  It’s no wonder that anti depressant anxiety medication is the most commonly prescribed medicine in this country.  It’s no wonder the divorce rate is going through the roof.  And as Christians  we are not immune to this, ladies and gentlemen.  Because we have bought in to the message of the world, which is no less than the message of the devil. Ephesians 2:1 describes this world force that works to bring discontentment.  “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.”  

This phrase the “course of the world” that Paul speaks of is the way of the world, being controlled by  thoughts and pursuits designed by the devil to rush men headlong after fleshly gratification which can never satisfy, like a raging river that courses along sweeping everything in it’s path towards destruction.   And as Christians we are not impervious to this current.  It is the nature of this world.  It’s end is destruction, it results in unfullfillment.  There is no real satisfaction that can be found in either our circumstances or in our acquisitions or our indulgences.  It is a rat race, a course designed by the prince of the power of the air, who is Satan, catching us up in a headlong rush to futility and ultimately destruction.

Now that is the course of this world.  It promises happiness but brings distress, dissatisfaction, despair and depression.  But the Bible says the way of godliness brings the peace of God which is contentment. 1Timothy 6:6 says, “But godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment.” 

So Paul gives us in this closing passage of this letter the secret to contentment.  Contentment is something that eludes the world because we are told the wrong way to achieve it.  We are told that it is through acquisition of the latest thing, through acquiring something new, to making it to the next rung on the ladder. But Paul tells us the secret to contentment is counterintuitive to human wisdom but is something that is learned from godly wisdom.  Contentment is learned behavior.

Look at verse 11; Paul has just commended the church at Philippi for sending him a gift, probably a monetary gift and he thanks them, but then he adds, “Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.”  Contentment, Paul is saying, can’t be acquired at the mall, it can’t be ordered from Amazon, it can’t be bought. Contentment is learned. 

The course of this world teaches us that contentment is earned by acquiring - through addition.  But godliness teaches us that contentment is learned through subtraction.  Giving rather than getting. Godliness teaches us that it is better to give than to receive.  The world tells us that we somehow have to live life more fully, to go for it all, to grab everything we want.  Godliness tells us that for me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Phil 3:8 tells us that godliness considers “all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ.” 

Learning contentment then requires that I retrain my thinking from conformity with the world view to conforming to godliness.  As it says in Romans 12:2 to be transformed by the renewing of my mind, and when I have retrained my mind according to godliness, and no longer trying to  conform to the standards of this world, then comes about the offering I give to God, the sacrifice of my body to be used for His glory and not mine.  This is a radical, life changing departure from the worldly view of life.  But this is the secret of contentment. 

Unfortunately, some modern day Christians don’t get this.  They want to have their cake and eat it too.  They want the guarantee of heaven, but they also want the pleasures and treasures that this world offers and they want a God that is little more than a genie who is going to help them get all that they wish for.  That isn’t true Christianity. That is little more than idol worship, and you are the idol and God is serving you.  This is the kind of man talked about in 1Tim. 6:5,  “men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain.”  In other words, these depraved men who are still looking at their lives from a world’s point of view, who think that godliness is a means of gain.  God is just some genie who guarantees our financial  and material success.  But the next verse says, no, but godliness is of great gain when combined with contentment. “For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content.  But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction.”

Listen, sanctification is one of those Bible words that are tossed around in church and nobody seems to know what they mean.  But I’ll tell you simply what sanctification means.  It means growing up, maturing.  Salvation is the new birth.  But once you are born into the family of God, the idea isn’t to stay an infant, but to become sanctified, to grow into maturity.  And sometimes that can be painful.  One thing for sure, is it is a process.  It’s a process of learning.  Learning to trust in God, learning not to trust in your own understanding of how you think things should be, and learning to accept and embrace the way God wants you to be.

Psalm 131:2 illustrates this idea of maturity.  It says, “Surely I have composed and quieted my soul; Like a weaned child rests against his mother, My soul is like a weaned child within me.” The illustration is that of a child who has matured to the point where he no longer needs milk and is able to rest upon his mother without needing milk anymore.  Now there is nothing sweeter than a baby who suckles his mother’s breast for milk.  But there comes a time when it is time for the baby to grow up and mature, and milk isn’t going to be enough for him anymore.  The baby doesn’t understand this.  He cries and cries and throws a tantrum wanting more milk, and yet the mother knows what is best for him.  If he was able to get what he wanted, his growth would be stunted.  He would never attain the usefulness of an adult.  So his mother weans him off the milk.  It is a painful time for the baby, but it is necessary if he is to grow and mature.  And how necessary is it for us, that when God brings about changes in our lives, many times by taking away something that will keep us from growing and maturing, we cry and cry, thinking we know best.  But God knows best.

I can tell you from my own experience, that my meltdown and descent into depression and anxiety 30 years ago coincided with a process of God taking away things I depended upon.  I don’t know if it always has to be that way, but I’ve found that it often is the way God brings about maturity in a believer.   God takes away  our crutches, things that we lean on, that we have counted on to define ourselves, to measure ourselves by.  God takes them away, one by one, until we learn to lean totally on Jesus Christ. 

Before I went through the meltdown phase of my depression, I was at the top of the antiques profession.  I had a good career, I made a comfortable income, I had built a beautiful house on a large tract of land, and had furnished it with all sorts of nice things, I sent my kids to  private schools, and we drove new cars.  But when my health reached the point where I couldn’t work anymore I began to see my bills snowball.  Debts that I had thought were manageable, I couldn’t handle anymore. So I began to have serious financial problems on top of all my health problems.  And during those years I can assure you that the first 20 times or so I read through most of the Bible, I was looking for promises from God that He was going to restore my fortunes.   Godliness, I believed should have brought about financial gain, not loss.  And I couldn’t understand why God would allow me to lose all that I had worked so hard for.

In my case, it took a few years, but eventually I lost my house, I lost my career.  I had a lot of very specialized knowledge that wasn’t able to do me any good anymore.   Eventually practically all my material possessions were gone.  In a few years I went from an upper middle class income to living below the poverty level. 

But  let me tell you what I gained through that loss.  I gained contentment.  I gained the peace of God that passes all comprehension.  I lost a career but I gained a ministry.  I lost my house but I gained a home in heaven.  I lost my valuable antiques but I gained treasure in heaven.  I learned contentment from what I lost, what I went through, which taught me that I could trust God in all my circumstances.  That when I reached the end of my extremity, God was sufficient for my needs.

Paul said in vs. 11, that I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.  Whatever circumstances I find myself in, God is faithful.  God is my resource.  I have learned I can trust in His providence, and learned not to trust in my resources. 

Listen, I don’t think my situation is all that unique.  One way or another, God’s purpose in saving us all is to conform us to the image of Christ.  And that means that if it pleased God to crush His own Son according to Isaiah 53,  so that He might learn obedience from the things He suffered, as it says in Hebrews 5:8, then because a servant is not greater than his master, according to John 13:16 then He will use the same suffering to conform us to Christ’s image.

Look at Paul’s words in the next verse of our text, Phil. 4:12;  this is the curriculum that we need to learn; “I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need.”  Paul can say I know contentment because he had come to know Christ. 

We looked at what Paul had to say about knowing Christ earlier in our study of  Phil. 3:10.  Paul said, “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.”  Knowing Christ means knowing the power of his resurrection;  knowing that He lives so that we might have life in His name.  But it is predicated on knowing the fellowship of his suffering, being conformed to his death. 

And for Paul, knowing the fellowship of his suffering meant that he learned how to get along with humble means, how to live in poverty, how to be hungry, how to rejoice while suffering need.  We don’t have to learn how to get along in prosperity so much, do we?  We don’t have to learn how to deal with abundance so much do we?  But having had those things, we do have to learn how to deal with not having them.  And I can tell you that it is painful.  We cry why Lord?  Why not?  Why can’t I have this thing?  I liked it so much.  I want it so much.  What’s wrong with it?  And maybe the answer is that there isn’t anything wrong with it. The scripture says all things are possible for me, but not all things are profitable.  Maybe it was good for a while, but now it is time to move on.  To grow.  To mature.  To get on with the business that we have been called by God to do.  And that is where being conformed to his death comes in.  We have to die to our desires, and learn to accept His will for our lives. His plan, his purposes. 

So what’s the secret to contentedness?  It’s found in Phil. 4:13.  But only after we have come to know Phil. 3:10. Because I know Him, I can do all things through Him. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”  That is the secret to being hungry, to suffering need, to living in poverty, to being humbled, I can deal with any circumstances I may encounter because I know Him, I have learned to suffer with Him, and I know that when I don’t have any resources I can trust Him to provide for my needs according to his plan for my life. 

And suffering teaches me the difference between my needs and my wants. 1Tim. 6:8 “If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content.”  Because Phil. 4:19 promises that “my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”  Therefore, I suffer the loss of all the extra stuff gladly, and consider it but rubbish for the surpassing value of knowing Jesus Christ. 

In 2Cor. 12:9 Paul said he was given a thorn in the flesh, to keep from exalting himself.  And through the suffering of this thorn in the flesh Paul finds the secret of contentment.  God said to Paul, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”

But I haven’t learned contentment, until I have reached the end of my resources, the end of my strength, and found that his supply is sufficient for all my needs.  That I can do all things, I can endure all things, through Him who strengthens me.  He supplies just what I need when I rest in dependence solely upon Him.  When I learn that I can trust him no matter what the circumstances, then I have contentment.  That’s the secret to contentment.  Knowing that my efficiency is not dependent on my proficiency, but on His sufficiency.

I leave you this morning with the words of Jesus in John 14:27 "Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.”  But let us compose and quiet our soul, like a weaned child on it’s mother’s breast, knowing that God knows best.

Overcoming anxiety and depression: Phil. 4:6-9

I’ve titled today’s message “overcoming anxiety and depression.”  The Lord gave me the outline for today’s message about 30 years ago, quite some time before I was actually a pastor. During that time, I had a fairly successful antique business.   I thought I was living for the Lord, and I also thought that my job, my family and my finances were indicative of God’s blessings on my life and were the result of the fact that I was a born again Christian who was trying to serve God.  I had begun to get more involved in my church and was teaching Sunday School and participating in various ministries the church was doing. I built a home in Harford County Maryland and loved raising my kids there.

At the peak of my career though I began to have a series of health issues that seemed to be unrelated at first, but over time had a cumulative disastrous affect on my health. The end result was that after several months of being sick and taking one medical test after another, I started experiencing extreme panic attacks.  At that time, panic or anxiety attacks were not very well known. I didn’t know they were anxiety attacks, I just felt like I had some mysterious disease.  If you have never had a panic attack then it is kind of hard to imagine what it was like.  Sometimes it may feel as if you are having a heart attack.  It might be combined with other symptoms like  shortness of breath, difficulty swallowing, feeling dizzy, blacking out,  claustrophobia, headaches, rashes and stiffness in the neck and shoulders.  I had all those symptoms and more and it seemed to get worse day after day.  After several months I became more or less completely traumatized.  I lost a lot of weight.  I developed a severe rash all over my body.  My toenails at one point turned black and fell off.  I reached a point where I couldn’t function, couldn’t work, and could hardly drive a car or fly in an airplane or even be alone.

My primary care physician finally determined that in addition to a string of illnesses I was suffering from a form of depression.  I was surprised to find out that in the medical profession they considered panic attacks a form of depression.  The doctor prescribed an anti-depressant drug that he assured me would help my condition.  Initially, I was very relieved. But when I told my wife about the medicine, she expressed concern about the possible side effects.  She has a sister that had been bipolar for many years, and so she had first hand experience in how certain psychiatric medicines can cause both short term and long term adverse side effects. 

 So after much prayer and deliberation, we decided not to use medicine to deal with my condition but would attempt to deal with it holistically, with a great emphasis on the holy part.  The long and short of it was that over next few years I immersed myself in the Word of God and prayer.  I also began eating better and exercising regularly, but my primary prescription was found in the Word of God.   In particular, this passage that we are looking at today in Philippians was one of the principal scriptures that God most effectively used to get me through that time.  But let me stress that it was a process.  I would have loved to have been instantly healed but it did not happen.  After about 3 years of suffering from  this illness I ended up losing my career, losing my house, my cars, all my antiques. During those years it was all I could do to keep food on the table. And during that time the genuineness of my faith was tested to the very limit.  I didn’t understand why God allowed all that to happen in my life. I thought that God was supposed to bless you if you were a Christian, and I couldn’t reconcile that with what was happening in my life.  And on top of all that,  I seriously began to fear that I was losing my sanity. 

Now I tell you all of this reluctantly, with more than a little embarrassment, in the hope that my story will help you realize that if there was hope for me, then there is hope for you.  You may not be going through anything similar to what I went through.  You may not ever have had a panic attack.  But I will say that it is very likely that at some point in your life you are going to come to the point like the old hymn says, “when all around my soul gives way.”  Things you thought you could count on fell apart.  People you count on fall away.  Stress becomes overwhelming.  Sickness or even death comes knocking on your door in a way that completely tears your world apart.  And when that day comes, then maybe this message will have helped to prepare you. Some of you, however, know exactly what I’m talking about today and have been looking for answers.  And the first place most of us go is to the medical profession looking for help.

Depression and anxiety in America has reached epidemic proportions. According to the CDC 1 in 6 Americans regularly take antidepressant medication.   Another government study revealed that antidepressants have become the most commonly prescribed drugs in the United States. They're prescribed more than drugs to treat high blood pressure, high cholesterol, asthma, or headaches.  Unfortunately, these drugs don’t cure a person of these disorders, they merely mask the symptoms, and in many cases are putting a band aid on a condition that will continue and in many cases get worse.  Often we try to self medicate ourselves with alcohol or drugs in an attempt to calm our anxieties or make ourselves feel more comfortable or just to be able to go to sleep.  And yet, sooner or later that backfires.  We end up addicted to substances on top of the psychological problems that we have and it just exacerbates the whole problem.

But regardless of what type of fear or stress or anxiety or depression that you may be suffering from,  this message today is for you.  I can tell you with all confidence that these principles in this passage we are looking at today will work because they get at the root of the problem and just don’t treat the symptoms.  They probably won’t produce an instantaneous healing, or an instantaneous correction of all your circumstances, but if you apply these principles in your life, as if your life depends upon them (which they do) then God will not fail to perform according to His promises.  This passage offers us hope for true deliverance.

Now let’s look at the passage.  It says in vs. 6, “Be anxious for nothing.”  That is the principle.  You could even say that is the command.  It is certainly the ideal pattern for the Christian walk, to have no fear, whatever the circumstances may be. The Bible says “do not fear” or some form of that over 500 times.  And Paul speaks from his own lifetime of experience, which by contrast puts my experience to shame.  He suffered so much, from shipwrecks to prisons, to beatings, to even being stoned and left for dead, and in fact he was writing from prison at the time of this letter.  He knew what he was talking about.  And so the principle is overcoming anxiety.  Overcoming fear.  Overcoming depression, stress and a whole host of  related circumstances you may find yourself in. 

But thankfully he doesn’t just leave us with the statement “Don’t be anxious.”  Nothing used to tick me off like someone that would just glibly dismiss my anxieties with the advice “don’t worry, it will all work out.”  But rather, Paul gives us 4 steps to overcoming fear, overcoming anxiety and depression.  And they are found right here in this passage.  Number one, the first step is to pray, in vs. 6.  Number 2, is to ponder, or to contemplate, and that is found in vs. 8.  Number 3, those things you have pondered, Paul says you now need to practice, vs. 9.  And number 4, after you have prayed, pondered and practiced, God promises peace, in vs. 9. 

So let’s look at number one, prayer.  Vs. 6; “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”  The first thing needed is prayer.  From a human standpoint, we don’t understand prayer.  It is one of those mysteries of our faith that requires just that – faith.   Faith in believing that God hears you and that He loves you and wants what is best for you.  Some people want to approach prayer with some sort of formula. If you say it in just the right way, with just the right amount of thanksgiving in it, and by all means be sure to say, “In Jesus name Amen” at the end, and if you muster up all your will power and believe without a doubt that God will do what you want Him to do, then God will give you exactly what you asked for.  They think prayer is a formula by which we tell God what to do and if we do it correctly, God is obligated to do it.  It’s an attempt to manipulate God from a position of control.  But the correct posture of prayer is that of a supplicant, realizing God is sovereign.

This verse shows three ingredients of prayer; supplication, thanksgiving, and requests or petitions.  But Paul isn’t giving us a formula here.  He is merely telling us that in everything we should pray to our Heavenly Father.  We have instant access to the Creator of the Universe.  I’ll tell you the secret to effective prayer.  It’s found in James 5:16 “Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.”  The reason your prayer is effective is predicated by the fact that you are made righteous by the shed blood of Christ.  Be sure that there is no sin in your life that is hindering your prayers.  But once you have cleansed  your conscience of unconfessed sin in your life, then it says be fervent about your prayers.  Energeo is the Greek word, and you can hear how that sounds like energize.  Listen, I can tell you how I learned to pray in those days of my meltdown, and I still pray that way a lot of times today.  I go to a place where I can pray aloud, and I get on my knees before the throne of grace and I grab on to the legs of the throne and I begin to call out to God with all my might.  I hold onto that throne and I say like Jacob “Lord, I am not going to let go until you bless me.”  I remind the Lord of all His promises that He has written in His Word, and I recount every aspect of my situation, and I talk to Him like He is literally standing in front of me.  I beseech Him.  I cry out to Him.  And I don’t stop until I can’t pray anymore or until He answers me.  Many, many nights during that time in my life I was up until 3am praying, freaking out, holding onto that throne with all my grip, pleading with God to help me. 

Folks, we need to learn to pray like that.  God isn’t interested in us making speeches. We need to pray like our lives depended upon it.  We need to pray for the salvation of our loved ones like that. We need to pray for revival like that. When I was going through that period in my life I began running.  And most of the time I was running through this long road that goes through a wooded area.  And while I ran I would just pray out loud.  Sometimes I yelled, sometimes I cried out loud to God, sometimes I was angry about something that I didn’t understand and I let God and the squirrels and the deer and everything else that is out there in the woods know about it.  But folks, I believe that is how we should pray.  Fervently.  There isn’t some formula.  Just pray with all your might. 

Jesus gave a parable in Luke 18 about a king and a widow that kept coming to him asking him to help her with her opponent.  And I like what the King said. “Yet because this widow bothers me, I will give her legal protection, otherwise by continually coming she will wear me out.'" And the Lord said, "Hear what the unrighteous judge said; now, will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them?”  Listen, we need to pray until the cows come home.  We don’t pray to an unrighteous judge, we pray to the righteous King Eternal, who also happens to be our heavenly Father. Jesus prayed all night on several occasions. So much more should we. Let’s be fervent about prayer. Praying at all times, night and day, in all situations, consistently praying, constantly praying.

Number 2,  after praying, we need to ponder. Vs. 8 “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things.”  These disorders that we are talking about today are all disorders of the mind, aren’t they?  These disorders are the result of wrong thinking.  And so what Paul is saying here is that we need to reprogram our minds with the truth.  When I was suffering from panic attacks, the constant refrain that my mind was stuck on was “what if…what if…”  It was like an old 33 rpm record that had a deep scratch in it.  And once the needle got stuck in that scratch, it would play the same thing over and over and over again. 

There are a lot of things that can contribute to that scratch if you will, in our minds.  This rut of wrong thinking is many times the result of the kind of garbage we are feeding our minds on hour after hour, day after day.  The world is constantly shoving it’s propaganda to us, via our televisions, our computers,  the music on our phones, our car radios.  We are plugged into the polluted message of the world all day long.  Some people even sleep with it on.  And then we wonder why we  are overwhelmed by these negative thoughts.  But folks, the answer is not just a good dose of positive thinking, but proper thinking.  And proper thinking is found in God’s word. 

Paul starts off with we should think about “whatever things are true,”  and he ends up the verse with if there is anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things.  Ponder these things.   You know, before I developed this disorder, I went to church twice a week, tithed 10% and I read my Bible every morning before I went to work.  I read at least a chapter every morning.  Man, I thought I was killing the whole Christian thing. But let me tell you something.  After I found myself in the throes of never ending panic attacks, I started to really read the Bible.  I read multiple books of the Bible in a single day.  Sometimes I read most of the New Testament in one day.  Did you know that it only takes about 18 hours to read the NT?  At night when the anxiety attacks got really bad, I would sometimes read the entire book of Psalms out loud, crying and praying each verse out loud to God.  By the way, I believe King David, a great warrior, a man after God’s own heart, who wrote most of the Psalms, I believe that David suffered from depression.  I believe he suffered from anxiety attacks.  And so I would encourage you to read the Psalms.  Read them aloud and deliberately reprogram your mind. 

Listen, you have to start telling yourself the truth. The mind is the battleground between the spirit and the flesh, did you know that?  Man was made at creation in the image of God who was a triune being and so we were made spirit, soul and body.   The spirit of man is the divine spark that God gave us originally that allowed man to have fellowship with God.  It was what made us alive spiritually, able to commune with God.  But the soul is the essence of man, the mind, the will, the seat of the emotions.  And of course, we know what our body is.  Now at the fall, the spirit of man died because of sin.  And our fellowship with God was broken.  We could not know God through our mind (our soul) or through any actions of our body.  So in our fallen state, the order of creation was reversed, and we became governed by the passions of our bodies, which controlled our minds.  We became enslaved to our fleshly passions.  Our spirit was dead.  But salvation  resulted in being born again, reborn, not of the flesh, but of the spirit.  We are made righteous through faith in Christ, and made alive in our spirit by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. 

Now though the spirit is born again, we are alive in Christ, yet our minds, our soul, is still in our body.  And our fleshly body is still corrupted.  However, that is why Romans 12 tells us that we are to be “transformed by the renewing of our minds.”  And  the will of God is that we are to present our bodies as a living  sacrifice to  God.  So, in the new order of becoming a Christian, I submit my mind to the Spirit of Christ,  renewing my mind by what the Spirit teaches me through the Word, and I discipline my body, sacrifice the desires of my body, crucify  the passions of my body and make it my slave.  No longer am I to be a slave of my body.  But I am to make my body the slave of my mind, my mind being obedient to the Spirit. 

But the battleground continues to be the mind.  Even once you are a Christian Satan is going to attack you in the flesh, and try to deceive your mind through your flesh once again.  And so our defense is the truth of God’s Word. Eph 6:12 says, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, HAVING GIRDED YOUR LOINS WITH TRUTH.”  The truth is found in God’s Word.  His promises are sure and will not fail.  And you need to deliberately,  constantly be putting God’s word, this truth into your mind.

When I was under attack, I took note cards and wrote down on each card a verse of scripture that was a promise from God to keep me and protect me.  I had about 30 of them wrapped in a rubber band that I carried all the time in my pocket.  I can remember many times while driving having to pull over on the side of the road and read through my cards a few times until I was able to go on.  I remember  after I had become sick that I tried to fly in an airplane.  I was wearing those cards out, I can tell you.  Every phobia I had was in full alert but I fought back with the truth, which is the Word of God. 

The third step is practice.  Vs. 9; “The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things.”  Listen, faith isn’t just Bible knowledge, faith is not positive thinking, it’s obedience to step out and do what is commanded of you to do.  The scripture is not meant to be a bunch of words we say like hocus pocus, and poof, magic happens.  No, the Word of God is instructions.  It tells us how to act, what to say, how to think.  It tells us promises of God that we are to believe in and act upon.  Before your mind is in a rut.  Now we have to reprogram our minds through practice, going over and over again the truths of God.

You know, if you want to get good at playing basketball, you go to the gym and practice.  You work on your foul shot.  You dribble.  But you do all this stuff before the game.  You don’t just show up to the game and expect to play well.  You practice whether you feel like it or not.  You rehearse how you should think.  You act out how you are supposed to act.  In other words, you don’t wait till you feel like it.  You begin with actions, and the feelings will eventually catch up.  You begin to act in faith to what God has promised in His word.  It may be small steps at first.  You might be frightened half out of your mind.  But believing in what God has promised, armed with your verses in your pocket, you begin to step out in faith regardless of how you feel. 

 Let me tell you something.   Feelings lie.  Don’t listen to your feelings.  Listen to the truth of God’s Word and then act in faith as if you felt like it, and soon enough you will find that you will have faith.  I’m not telling you to believe you can jump off a 5 story building or something foolish.  I’m telling you that you have to act on the promises of God that are written in His word.  Don’t act on what some well meaning friend may have counseled you.  Act on what God has promised to you and written down so that you might  know His instructions. And by acting on God’s promises, we cut a new groove in our minds of proper thinking according to what God has said.

Finally, number four, if you pray, ponder and practice then you will know peace.  And listen folks, this isn’t just some peace found in a sleeping pill, or bottle of whiskey, or even the peace that comes through a prescription, this is so much better than that.  This is the peace of God, he says in vs. 7; “which surpasses all comprehension, which will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”  I love that verse.  Because what it says is that He will give you a peace that passes understanding.  You can’t understand it, but there is a sense of peace that God gives to those that really put their trust in Him.  You may have to learn to trust in Him.  Learning to trust in Him is a process that sometimes can take a long time.  We learn to trust Him when we pray, we read His Word, we ponder His Word, then we obey His Word,  and we practice His Word, then we get peace because we have proven His Word.  See, it’s one thing to say something is true, and intellectually believe it, but it is another thing to prove something is true.  And in these kinds of distresses, as we go through them we end up proving that God is true, that He can be trusted.  And that equips us for tomorrow.  Because more difficulties are going to come again tomorrow.  Jesus said, everyday has difficulties.  But what you have proven to be true today will make tomorrow’s difficulties easier to go through. 

James 1:2 says  “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,

knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.  And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” When you run, you increase your endurance by pushing through the pain, stretching yourself.  And the next day you find you can run further.  One of the reasons that I think we have such an increase in psychological disorders today is because we somehow have been taught to think that life is supposed to be free of trials.  Everything is supposed to be easy, everything is supposed to work out. Especially if you are a Christian. The prosperity gospel is very appealing, and I think many of us subconsciously believe it to be true.  But the truth is, life is difficult. The Christian life is difficult.  We don’t always know why, or the source of our difficulties.  We sometimes don’t even know if God is doing it to us, or if Satan is doing it.  

James 1:13 says “Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am being tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.”  But it goes on to say we are tempted by our own lust. In other words, it goes back to our fallen nature again, that is pulling at us, tempting us, calling us.  And remember Satan is called the Tempter in scripture, isn’t he?  Satan tempts us, and sometimes he is given liberty to test us.  Job went through a great deal of trials that were brought about through no fault of his own, but through Satan.  However, one thing we can know  is that God promises to use even evil for our good. Rom. 8:28, “And we know that God causes ALL things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”  And what is God’s purpose in calling us?  The next verse says He predestined us to become conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. God is using these circumstances to prove you, to mold you into the image of Jesus Christ. 

Listen, I’ll say it again.  Your mind is the battleground between the Spirit and the flesh.  You are going to have to choose who you will listen to. Are you going to submit to the lies of the flesh or the truth of the Spirit? There is an interesting word that is found in vs. 7, in the Greek it’s phroureo, which means kept in a garrison.  God will guard your mind and heart in a fort, a garrison.  Your mind is a fort.  And the Holy Spirit stands watch over it.  But  you have control over the gate.  You can either open it to the Spirit or to the flesh. Every bad thought that comes we are to take  captive to Christ.  Listen to 2 Cor. 10: 3 “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.  We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete.” 

Well, I must close.  There is so much here that I feel that I could go on for another hour.  But I will just close by saying that here in Phil. 4 God confirms to us twice that He is able to give us peace that passes all understanding if we are obedient to the instructions that He provides in His Word. In vs. 7 we see the peace of God, and in vs. 9 we see the God of peace.  It’s like two pieces of bread that make up the sandwich. I don’t want to downplay the seriousness of mental disorders and fears and phobias.  I know the seriousness of them.  But I also know the peace of God that comes from having proven God to be faithful to the promises found in His Word as I walk in obedience to those promises.  One day Jesus is coming back for those that are His, and He is going to wipe away all tears, and dispel forever all fears.  He is going to replace this fallen body with a body that cannot be broken, that is no longer fallen, but remade in His likeness.  That’s the ultimate purpose of God, to make us into His likeness, and restore our fellowship with Him the way it was originally intended in the garden.  Until then, let us pray like our lives depended upon it, and let the Spirit guard the garrison of our hearts and minds, let’s take every thought captive in obedience to what Christ has promised us, and let’s destroy those speculations that undermine our faith.  And the peace of God will encircle the garrison of our minds like a moat surrounds the castle.