Fix Your Thoughts

In chapter 4, verse 6 of his letter to the believers in Philippi, Paul told them that they should not worry about anything. Can you imagine receiving a letter from someone telling you that? What would your response be? “Sure, Paul, easy for you to say! You don’t know what I’m going through. If you did, you’d be just as worried as I am! What do you suggest I do?” Paul answers that in the second part of this verse: “…instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.”

When we are worried about the problems we face, we need to take that worry to God and talk to him about what we are going through. We should tell him what we need at that moment and thank him for all he has done for us. The result is that God will give us what we truly need. Look at Philippians 4:7:

“Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.”

The peace that God gives is greater than anything we can possibly receive in those moments of worry and anxiety, and we are promised this peace when we pray and give thanks rather than give in to our worry and anxiety. Our situation may not change immediately, but we are promised that this peace will guard our hearts and our minds as we live in Christ. We need to pray, we need to give thanks, but we also need to do one thing more. Let’s look at what Paul says next in this letter:

“And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.” (Philippians 4:8)

Paul is telling us that we need to fix our thoughts on the right things. We need to fix them on truth. We need to fix them on what is honorable, what is right, what is pure, lovely, and admirable. We need to think about those things that are both excellent and worthy of praise. Doing all this means that we are keeping our minds off the things of the world. It means that we are keeping our thoughts focused not on our worries, not on our troubles, but on Jesus. It means living in Christ. And when we do, we have this promise:

“Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.” (Philippians 4:9)