Is this a common thought in your life? “I have tried so hard to keep my mind peaceful! It keeps wandering off and all I hear is the chatter of my worrying self-talk. In fact I have tried to reason with and analyse my thinking and all I discover is a can of worms that cannot be contained!” Does it seem to you that a thought grows exponentially into a worry and then escalates into a pressure cooker of overwhelming condemning thoughts? Come and find out how to quiet our minds at the cross in today’s lesson.
“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
As we continue with our study in Philippians 4, we have seen that we can always rejoice in the gift we have been given at our salvation of the peaceful mind of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have been reconciled from our former hostility with God (Romans 5:10), the God of peace, through the death and resurrection of His Son. “For Christ himself has brought peace to us.” (Ephesians 2:14 NLT). In gentleness and humility, we bring our many prayer requests to God with thanksgiving, resting in the blessings we have been given in the gospel of grace.
In Philippians 4:7, we then read that we are promised the experience of day-to-day supernatural peace in our hearts:
“And the peace of God [that peace that reassures the heart, that peace] which transcends all understanding, [that peace which] stands guard over your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus [is yours]” Philippians 4:7 AMP [emphasis added]
The peace we receive from God is a peace that reassures and comforts our hearts. It is an active guard over our hearts and minds (from the Greek word ‘phrouréō’ meaning ‘to guard’), protecting us from a hostile invasion of worry and upset. Similar to a sentry tower at a military camp, the peace of the camp is maintained as search lights reach upward and go back and forth in the sky to ward off invaders. If an intruder gets through the perimeter of the camp, they are captured and the quietness of the camp is restored.
For those in Christ, we keep our eyes upward on the place where our peace was won and our identities in Christ are seen with blood-bought clarity - at the cross of Jesus Christ. We “take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5) and “cast all our anxieties on him, because he cares for you” (1 Peter 4:19).
The type of peace that surpasses any type of psychological or philosophical human reasoning is knowing that man has been reconciled to His creator by the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ (1 John 2:2). It brings a peace that surpasses all understanding! It is indescribable! How can this be? The believer’s conscience is at peace with his Maker. The believer’s conscience is clear because his or her sins have been washed away in the river of Christ’s blood at the cross and their pardon has been sealed by the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13). No longer do threats of punishment and condemnation ring in his or her ears, for their sins have been thrown into the depths of the sea (Micah 7:19).
Many cognitive therapies in the world today would say that the remedy to the confusion of our anxious thinking is to concentrate on our thoughts in an intensive way: thinking more about our thinking, pondering more about our pondering, reasoning more about our human reasoning! Such therapies teach that it is not external frightening circumstances that cause our thinking but the way we think about them. The mind is considered to be at the center. As their solution, we are encouraged to talk to ourselves, raising ourselves up with optimistic self-talk to bolster self-esteem with white knuckling self-effort.
This worldly self-talk is back and forth within ourselves, as if we were phoning ourselves and replying to the same phone call with “do better” replies that come from the flesh and from man’s understanding.
However, as Christians we need to engage in a different type of phone call in our minds, not listening to ourselves with fleshly talk:
“For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.” Romans 8:5
We tell ourselves the truth of the word of God, grounded in our abiding relationship as beloved children of our Father God (1 John 3:1) and living in the spiritual reality of being constantly in the presence of Another, our God (Joshua 1:9):
“The Spirit we received does not make us slaves again to fear; it makes us children of God. With that Spirit we cry out, “Father.” 16 And the Spirit himself joins with our spirits to say we are God’s children.” Romans 8:15-16 NCV
We have the powerful work of the Holy Spirit within us to transform us at the root of our anxious thinking which is in our hearts, rather than attributing it to the seat of our minds (Ezekiel 36:25-27).
As we fix our eyes on Jesus, and see the cross and empty tomb of Jesus before us, the Spirit of God will apply God’s Word as we speak it to ourselves. It will not be just a recitation of scripture without power repeated over and over again. The Holy Spirit will testify with our Spirit (Romans 8:16) to reveal God’s Word to us personally in an explosion of truth that penetrates, washes and heals our heart, drenched in His love!
Rather than trying to raise up our own thinking by our own strength, we bring our hearts to the cross and there our thinking is lifted up by the Holy Spirit and we are pointed in the direction of Jesus, from whom flows grace and truth (John 1:14). The gospel is the incredible and earthshaking “power of God to salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16) and “to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18).
At the foot of the cross, the Word is activated and energized in our hearts by the work of the Spirit (Ephesians 1:13-14) and we then start to worship Jesus again for His work of substitution for our own sins. We see that not only did Jesus die for us, we died in Him and we begin living like crucified people, dead to this world and flesh, and surrendered slaves to His magnificent righteousness. His supernatural peace starts to rule again in our hearts and then in our minds (Romans 6:18).
It is a wonderful ongoing process of being sanctified each day and lifted out of thoughts of striving and contriving, to a mind that is trusting and worshipping Jesus.
We are encouraged in Philippians 4:8 to center our hearts and think about things that are excellent, specifically what is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, and praiseworthy, and commendable. All of these qualities are found to the fullest measure in Jesus Christ Himself, throughout His earthly ministry and during His suffering, death and resurrection. Let’s look to Jesus and “think about these things” (Philippians 4:8).
Jesus is “Whatever is true”
The Greek word for “true” (‘alēthēs’) is described as what passes thorough testing and scrutiny, or something that is real, transparent, not fabricated and without bias. Fearful thinking is riddled with lies that we have no source of strength to lean on and that we are alone and without hope. Through the eyes of faith, we see things without distortion when we abide in Christ, through the Holy Spirit who gives revelation and enlightens – shines His light in – our hearts (Ephesians 1:17-18). Jesus, who is without blemish or spot (1 Peter 1:19), is the fullness of Truth personified: “I am the way, the truth and the life; no man comes to the Father but by Me” (John 14:6).
“He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who is seeking the glory of the One who sent Him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.” John 7:18 While men shouted lies and fabrications in Jesus’ courtroom to try to falsely convict Him, and later spat out deceit and spittle over Him as His blood poured from His crucified body, Jesus did not seek His own glory but only the glory of His Father. To the criminal being crucified beside Him, who received faith in the last moments of his life, Jesus spoke words of truth that changed this dishonest man forever “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43; emphasis added). A cleansing fountain was opened up for this man (Zechariah 13:1), and for all who believe, when Jesus died, was buried and raised to life. We were washed from sin and guilt in the purity of His blood to live in the presence of God forever.
Jesus is “Whatever is honorable”
Excessive fearfulness invites a mental outlook that opposes peaceful, honorable and respectful thinking. In anxiety, we are propelled to run and hide from abiding peacefully with God, and from loving or ministering to others as Jesus has loved us.
Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself.” Hebrews 3:3 NIV “His work [is] honourable and glorious: and his righteousness endureth for ever.” Psalms 111:3 Oh, Jesus’ atoning and justifying work at Calvary is worthy of all praise and honor and glory! He is the head and builder of His church by circumcising all believers of their old hearts of stone (Colossians 2:11), and giving us new hearts of flesh filled with the honor of His name and His work.
Jesus is “Whatever is just”
Deriving from the Greek word ‘díkaios’ meaning right or righteous in the eyes of God or receiving a verdict of divine approval, we can see that a peaceful mind is filled with valuing lawfulness and fairness. A fearful mind dwells in self-pity and on the unfairness of our situations, distancing from belief in God’s perfect sovereignty and goodness in the specific circumstances we are living in.
God deals with humanity in justice by sending His Son, “the man he chose long ago” (Acts 17:31 NCV) to wear our sin and shame, standing before the judge of our courtroom, and receiving our final judgment of punishment by flogging and death by crucifixion. Justice for our sin was delivered, paid in full to the last penny and was accepted by the Father. Hear the judge’s hammer pound down on the table, your court case settled for you as Jesus’ blood pleads your innocence: “And God has proved this to everyone by raising that man from the dead!” Acts 17:31 NCV
Jesus is “Whatever is pure”
Some would say that if our thoughts are hidden from others then our private thinking does not hurt others. However, this passage from Philippians emphasizes that the content of our thinking does matter! We are encouraged to think about things that are pure, or in other words holy, uncontaminated, and not mixed with anything that would make them unclean. Fearful thinking is contaminated by thoughts of self-protection, dread and lack of worship to God.
“Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one.” Job 14:4
And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.” 1 John 3:3
Look up and see our holy and pure Jesus on the cross, and leave behind all the other unsuccessful ways we have tried in the past to cover our uncleanness (Job 14:4). His skin is sliced and whipped through in many directions and He is made a curse on the hill of Golgotha, the place of a skull. See the extent of His love for you as He fights to bring your defiling sins to death in His disfigured and nailed body. And as He cried out that His work of purification was finished (John 19:30), we rejoice with this truth: ‘though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isaiah 1:18).