Philippians 4:4-13
Three ways we can choose to seek peace:
- Think about good things
- Philippians 4:8
- Often our thoughts are controlled by our emotions but we can choose what goes on in our head.
- It’s easy for us to focus on the output of our lives not on the input, just turning up on Sunday isn’t enough if the rest of the week you’re consuming ‘junk’.
- Be content and thankful in everything
- Philippians 4:11-12
- We often want more, a nicer house, a better job etc. James 4:1-2, but there will be no peace in our lives when we’re coveting other things, as true peace and contentment can’t come from external things.
- Finding contentment no matter what we’re going through isn’t about ignoring our circumstances, but accepting that true contentment can only come through our relationship with Jesus.
- We should not only be content but thankful as well, 1 Thessalonians 5:18, actively praising God and thanking him is an amazing way to increase how content we are as it focuses us back on Jesus.
- Don’t worry but pray
- Philippians 4:5-6
- It’s so easy to worry and be anxious, but this is not a reasonable thing to do, as it doesn’t help us. Verse 5 says ‘let your reasonableness be known to everyone’, these choices we can make aren’t groundbreaking but logical, reasonable things to do as a Christian, to bring our worries to Jesus.
- James 4:1-3
- To have peace in our lives we need to have a prayerful life.
These three choices all point to Jesus and they work because they take our gaze off of our problems and make us look at Christ.