Philippians 4:4,6,8-9 (NASB95)

4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!
6 Be anxious for nothing, 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 comprehension will guard your hearts and mind in Christ Jesus.
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, dwell on these things.
9 The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

Rejoice always…

Don’t be anxious…

The peace of God…

Dwell on these things…

Wow!  What a string of thoughts.

The word translated ‘anxious’ comes from a word that means to divide, and it is also translated ‘worry.’  The next verse seems to indicate that the divided thing in question is our heart and mind.

My heart and mind divided… Wow again.

Heart and mind… feeling and thinking…

My thinking and feeling is divided in pieces.

Is that what anxiety and worry is?  Coming to the place where it seems the pieces of my thinking and the pieces of my emotions are all disconnected?

Have you ever heard someone say, “I just can’t seem to get it together!”

Get what together?

What happens when I sort of look around my life and the pieces don’t seem to be able to connect… they’re divided.  My emotions… my thinking… they seem disconnected and in pieces as well!  What now?

Last time in our devotional we talked about the word ‘dwell’ which comes from a word that means to calculate.

Over the course of the next several days we are going to look at some of the steps to recalculating our circumstances, our feelings, and our thinking.  We’re going to examine why and how we are summoned to, rejoice, pray, give thanks… and how that affects finding a place of the peace of God.

Can we get it together?  I think so.  But we’ll end with that same question, “What are you dwelling on?”

Don’t give in… don’t let go!

Pastor Tom Sterbens

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