Do you desire to think rightly and in a praiseworthy manner but frequently get side-tracked and end up in a different place from where you started? You are not alone. In the next two lessons on Philippians 4:4-9, apostle Paul addresses this struggle and gives us guidance on how we can be lifted out of the tyranny of the broken record of our fleshly thoughts, and into the beautiful and peaceful haven of the mind of Christ.
“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, 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 understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9 What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me - practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.” Philippians 4:4-9
Have you ever been involved in a round of singing at church where one group of people started singing a song, such as from this passage in Philippians 4:4: “Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice”, and then the next group begins their singing slightly later: “Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice”? The roof of the church seems to lift off its rafters as every voice is filled with joy, and smiles fill the faces of the singers as they concentrate on their own song lyrics and try not to become distracted by the words of the other group. But before long, if a conductor or worship leader is not present to focus on, the members of the church often dissolve into laughter as people lose the thread of their thoughts, others keep on singing not knowing when to stop, and a few even start to add some new innovative lyrics. Harmony ends up in confusion!
It is not unlike our own thinking when situations overwhelm us. We may also be drawn into thinking that the source of our swirling thoughts has no bearing to ourselves: “How did that happen? All these thoughts came out of nowhere… I have no control!” or are externally caused “Another person or a lack of help or my unfortunate past made me think that… it’s their fault, not mine!” When external circumstances change around us and our thinking starts racing after these events, how can we follow the teachings of Philippians chapter 4 to not be anxious (Philippians 4:6) and to rejoice, to be filled with joy… always (Philippians 4:4)?
The Bible tells us that the source of our thoughts derives from our hearts:
“For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, (22) adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. (23) All these vile things come from within; they are what defile you.” Mark 7:21-23 NLT “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.” Proverbs 4:23 NLT Our thinking does not come out of ‘nowhere’ nor is it inserted magically into our minds from other’s actions. Our heart determines and controls our thoughts and behaviors, rather than the reverse way around, which worldly wisdom would suggest. Our heart is “is fooled more than anything else, and is very sinful. Who can know how bad it is?” (Jeremiah 17:9 NLV), and contains all our passions and feelings and “stubborn inclinations” (Jeremiah 7:24).
Consequently, our confused or anxious thinking cannot be solved in a long-lasting and enduring way by outwardly trying to force inner change on the inclinations and passions of our hearts.
As an illustration, we sometimes see children play with balls that hold a tempting ringing bell on the inside. No matter how hard they push and prod on the outside of the ball, they cannot extract the bell and make it quiet. The noise of the bell will keep on chiming from the inside.
In a similar way, placing all our hope on self-powered mind-distracting techniques, dissecting our pasts to find the cause of our fretful thoughts, employing external cognitive and behavioral change remedies, or ‘white-knuckling’ ourselves to have ‘more holy’ minds with religious approaches, will not change our thinking in the long term. The tune of the same broken record will keep playing in our anxious minds because our hearts remain the same. Our hearts need to be taken to the cross of Jesus to be washed and transformed by the love we find there.
All of these external ways disregard and bypass the reality and incredible power of the work of Jesus of substitution at the cross in the hearts of believers. The pure and blameless One changed places with the wicked and the guilty, and viewing this with the eyes of faith changes our hearts.
We once could not understand God’s wisdom nor accept the things of the Spirit of God (1 Corinthians 3:14) as we were:
“trying to please our sinful selves and doing all the things our bodies and minds wanted. We should have suffered God’s anger because we were sinful by nature. We were the same as all other people.” Ephesians 2:3
Through faith in the death and resurrection of Christ, our old hearts with their sinful inclinations were put to death at Jesus’ crucifixion (Galatians 2:20). All believers received a new heart, bathed in the Holy Spirit who points us to the cross of Christ, and who gives understanding and discernment in spiritual matters (1 Corinthians 3:12,15). When we receive these new hearts we also get new God-glorifying inclinations as we surrender to His leading in our lives. “The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV). The very mind of Jesus, which holds the thoughts, feelings, and purposes of His heart, became wonderfully ours when we received saving faith in Christ:
“For who has known or understood the mind (the counsels and purposes) of the Lord so as to guide and instruct Him and give Him knowledge? But we have the mind of Christ (the Messiah) and do hold the thoughts (feelings and purposes) of His heart.” 1 Corinthians 2:16 AMPC [emphasis added]
Having the mind of Christ means we desire to think from a gospel perspective, from our Savior’s viewpoint, as we are reminded in Philippians 2:
“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” Philippians 2:5-8 [emphasis added]
In Philippians 4:5, we see the important connection between gentleness, sometimes translated as ‘sweet reasonableness’, in overcoming anxiety:
“Let gentleness be seen in every relationship, for our Lord is ever near. 6 Don’t be pulled in different directions or worried about a thing. Be saturated in prayer throughout each day, offering your faith-filled requests before God with overflowing gratitude. Tell him every detail of your life, 7 then God’s wonderful peace that transcends human understanding, will make the answers known to you through Jesus Christ.” Philippians 4:5-7 TPT
When we are transfixed by gripping fear, we are seldom gentle and humble in spirit, tender, and surrendering to our Lord in love. Our prayers do not have the fragrance of gratitude but instead hold a demanding undertone. At these fretful times, we do not count others as more significant than ourselves nor trust that God will defend and vindicate us in the situations we fear (Deuteronomy 32:36). Fear hardens our hearts and raises the ‘self,’ while gentleness softens and opens the eyes of our hearts to see that the Lord is ever near and faithful to provide and protect us in this life on earth and in the next when Jesus returns (Hebrews 10:24-25). A person with a gentle heart will enjoy daily experiential peace with God (Philippians 4:7) as he or she bows before the Lord humbly throughout the day, asking for grace to help with the situations they dread and fear, telling “him every detail of your life” (Philippians 4:5 TPT). Oh, how the Lord loves to hear the supplications of those He delights in, making His answers to prayer known to us through the cross-work of Jesus Christ!
Can you stop and reflect on the scene at Calvary for some minutes now? Can you step forward in wonder to look closer and see Jesus laying down His life, and at the same time giving us this new heart and mind that prize the same things He does? Do you see how much love we have been given because our Lord, the One “altogether lovely” (Song of Songs 5:16), the “bright Morning Star” (Revelation 22:16), was denied so much? As we spiritually feed on the “Bread of Life” (John 6:32) who is Jesus, and on the works of His body and His blood at the cross, anxieties, and burdens in our hearts are supernaturally lifted and our minds are sovereignly calmed by the Holy Spirit guiding us back to Jesus.
Can you lift your face to the cross and put yourself somewhere in the scene? Are you a distant onlooker? Are you standing beside Mary, Jesus’ mother? Are you clinging in longing to the bleeding feet of Christ and worshipping? Can you hear the noise of soldiers performing executions, and smell the dust and sweat? Nailed to a wooden pole, Jesus hangs limply, no longer recognizable because of the inflammation of His wounds. We can imagine that the pain receptors over the expanse of Christ’s body transmitting mind curdling messages to His spinal cord and brain, telling Him to flee from the source of His acute pain: “Run, hide, save yourself.“ In Jesus’ mind, He hears the venomous screams of Satan’s loathing. At the same time, there is an echoing silence of words of intimate love from His own Father that the Son of God has never experienced in all of time. He hears every syllable of the slander and spite from our mouths, His own created people, shouting at Him from the foot of the cross: “Be gone from the face of this earth!”
Nevertheless, Christ turns His own thoughts to do the will of God to “save what was lost” (Luke 19:10) so “that I shall lose none of those He [the Father] has given Me, but raise them up at the last day” (John 6:39 [word added]). Do you see that Jesus’ mind is riveted on bringing glory to God (John 17:5), thirsting to stay the course of His execution to forgive every one of our sins and to erase every curse that was formerly upon us? He extracts our abhorrent self-righteousness and replaces it with His beautiful and spotless righteousness, puts to death our self-absorbed hearts, and demolishes all barriers of enmity that stood between us and God.