Thoughts From Philippians 4 - Part 4

 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you. Phil. 4:6-9

         Should Christians experience anxiety? Yes. Should Christians suffer from anxiety? No. Let me dig myself out of this hole which you may totally disagree with - and that's Ok. The Bible is inerrant - I'm not.

        Anxiety is rampant today. We just bought a bestselling book on screen time and over- protective parenting causing anxiety and limiting screen time and encouraging free play outside. Kids, because of social media are continually asking themselves, "Am I enough?" as they see photoshopped images with millions of views and likes while their posts get 12 views. I have to laugh that whenever our 13-year-old granddaughter is asked to take a picture, she has to turn the screen to face the other direction. They see parties where they weren't invited and wonder what's wrong with me and were they talking about me? Even without social media unexplainable fear or dread hits us all. I don't have much experience with this, but I was once singled out in medical school to review a slide during Pathology class in front of the whole class of 150 that was projected on a screen from a microscope. I felt like the dog in this far side cartoon except my caption would have been "I don't see a darn thing"

 Several days later I developed itchy plaques on my elbows and when I showed a doctor he said, "That's from anxiety." Wow, just that slight 5-minute experience of the fear of failure and being outed as not as smart as everyone else, triggered an illness on my body.

       I had a professor in college who quoted this verse and said anxiety is a sin, so the next point I just suggest on the chance that he was right. I think Jesus experienced anxiety in Gethsemane as he thought of his upcoming day as demonstrated by his sweat drops of blood and anguishing prayers to "take this cup from me." If Jesus experienced anxiety, it's safe to say that we all will. The point I made earlier is that, like with temptation we are all tempted, so with anxiety we will all be anxious, yet it can stop there - it doesn't need to go further. We don't need to suffer from anxiety. There are a lot of medications out there for anxiety which I prescribe, but if you are having to take these, I think you have to ask why. Paul gives a word in the middle of this, which I highlighted, thanksgiving, that may be the remedy. Forrest Frank, that profound theologian, writes;

Lord, I'm just grateful that I got to wake up today
You take my worries and hurries and fade 'em to grey
You have good plans for me, that's what You say
That's how I know everything is gonna be Okay!
I woke up late, and the house is a wreck
Couple bills on the counter, I don't wanna check
The car needs gas and an oil change
I guess I'll get around to that next
'Cause my son's doin' front-flips on the floor
And I'm supposed to be a silly dinosaur
Somewhere in the mess, I look to You
And a new song starts to break through
Lord, I'm just grateful that I got to wake up today
You take my worries and hurriеs and fade 'em to grey
You havе good plans for me, that's what You say
That's how I know everything is gonna be Okay!

In the midst of our anxiety can we think about the pure, true, wholesome, lovely promises of God and the good plans and future He not only has for us but is currently accomplishing through us, and just mentally remove ourselves from the temporary stressors that we are experiencing? Even Jesus did that. Hebrews 12 says, "For the Joy set before Him He endured the cross..." Paul recently mentioned the book of life. As we fear upcoming situations can we turn our eyes with thankfulness that our names are recorded there so what trivial thing down here could overshadow that? This thankful spirit is the barrier to anxiety getting a grip. Focus on the unseen, not the seen!