This is one of those Biblical Ronseal passages; it does exactly what it says on the tin. If you’re looking for peace of mind, if you’re looking for sanctuary in contemplation, if you’re looking for a healthy thought life, this is where you look. In three simple verses Paul explicitly lays out the way to achieve it.
Verse Six dives straight in - “Don’t worry about anything, instead pray about everything.”
Everyone has worries. Worries about jobs, money, home life, love life, health… we could spend all day every day being worried about something and everything.
Everyday we’re bombarded by the media with negative news and spin about this issue and that pandemic and the other threat… and we absorb that negativity, and it fuels what we worry already about and gives us twenty other things to worry about, that we didn’t even realise affected us until we read the paper that morning. I can tell the days my granddad buys the Daily Mail because he actually starts sentences with the words ‘well, what worries me is…’
Worrying. We’re told quite bluntly in black and white “DON’T DO IT!”
Don’t worry! About anything! Just stop doing it! STOP IT!
Does worrying ever stop bad things happening? NO!
Will worrying about stuff add extra time onto the end of your life? NO!
Instead: why not be productive with your time and turn your worrying into praying?
It’s not like Paul just tells us to stop doing something, he gives us a way of channelling all the worry-energy into a more positive avenue.
Worrying often turns us in on ourselves. We get blinkered to reality.We focus on the problem – Analysing every little detail and aspect of it. Then we start imagining the worst-case scenario as the most likely outcome. But by praying, we can turn to God and by turning to him we can open ourselves to receive his perfect peace. And this peace guards our hearts and minds. He will protect us.
Our problems won’t mysteriously disappear.
But his peace will miraculously appear.
Sometimes the problem won’t go away, but the peace of God will help us deal with it more effectively than worrying and panicking about it. He’ll give us time to regroup, compose ourselves and fix our eyes and thoughts on the things that will help us – ‘thinking towards God’.
And Paul gives us a list of good things to focus on.
True – Don’t dwell on lies. Jesus is the truth. The Bible is truth
Honourable – Trusted sources, not spin or corruption
Right – things that are the way God intended them to be. We know the difference between right and wrong.
Pure – not things that are tainted or distorted or drenched in lust
Lovely – the beauty of God’s creation. I love Love.
Admirable – look for the good in people.
Excellent – Don’t settle for second best. Think about excellent things. Martin Luther once said to “dream dreams so big that they’re doomed to fail unless God is in them”.
Worthy of Praise – We’re back to ‘thinking towards God’. God alone is worthy of all praise.
All of these things sound brilliant. But it’s got a distinctive ring of ‘easier said than done’ to it right?
Living the way God has designed for us in a world that is full of depressing, evil, lustful, dirty, and disturbing attitudes that are being constantly thrown around by people around town and the media is not easy... if we continue to operate with the same mindset as those around us.
That’s why Paul wrote in his letter to the Christians in Rome “let God transform you… by changing the way you think”. Don’t conform to the world around you. Don’t be so comfortable with the world that you fit in without even thinking about it. But be transformed. Think towards God and let his Holy Spirit change you.
And it’s only by this change of mindset that we can achieve Paul’s strong suggestion in verse 4 – Rejoice in the Lord always. Celebrate God all day. Revel in Him. Enjoy your life with him. It’s ok to be a Christian and have fun at the same time. We don’t have to be miserable and grumpy and bitter.
To steal the atheist bus slogan:
There probably is a God,
so stop worrying (start praying) and enjoy your life.
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