Worry, Anxiety, Fear, and Hope!
Indianapolis First Friends
Pastor Bob Henry
October 15, 2017
Philippians 4:4-9The Message (MSG)
4-5 Celebrate God all day, every day. I mean, revel in him! Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you’re on their side, working with them and not against them. Help them see that the Master is about to arrive. He could show up any minute!
6-7 Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.
8-9 Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.
The text for today is one of my favorite “reality checks” in scripture. Whenever I read it, I find it raising a lot of different feelings and thoughts and causing me to stop and think about the things I worry about, my anxiety, and what all I fill my mind with throughout the week. Wrestling with these thoughts are such important things to help us build self-awareness and understanding. Whenever I do this type of spiritual exercise, I understand better what Eugene Peterson meant when he called the Bible, “a book that reads us even as we read it.”
In one of the classes I used to teach at Huntington University, I began each lesson with some Lectio Divina. If you are not familiar with Lectio Divina, those words are Latin for "divine reading," "spiritual reading," or "holy reading." They represent a method of prayer and scriptural reading intended to promote communion with God and provide special spiritual insights. I have even heard one person call it Quaker Bible Reading.
Often it takes repetitively reading the scriptures and honing in on specific words or phrases, instead of specific answers, doctrines, or thoughts. This often leads one to see new things or actually ask different questions of scripture. Too often Bible reading is simply about finding answers or proving others wrong. That is not what Lectio Divina is meant to be.
Part of the class I taught, as well as in my own devotional life, I utilized a book called, “Solo: An Uncommon Devotional” which utilized Lectio Divina and the Message version of scripture. The process that the book lays out is rather simple:
Read Think Pray Live.
That could easily be described as somewhat of a mantra for my own life - Read, Think, Pray, and Live.
This morning, for a change of pace, I would like us to experience a similar process with our text from Philippians.
To begin I am going to read our text through twice. As I read, take time to listen for specific phrases or words that speak specifically to you and your condition. Don’t get caught up with why the text is being written, or who it is being written for, or what it’s doctrinal intent...but rather let it speak to your heart and condition in the present moment without any of these other limitations.
As I used to tell my students, “You may need to close your eyes to open up your ears.”
Listen to these words from
Philippians 4:4-9 (MSG)
4-5 Celebrate God all day, every day. I mean, revel in him! Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you’re on their side, working with them and not against them. Help them see that the Master is about to arrive. He could show up any minute!
6-7 Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.
8-9 Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.
(Repeat)
Now, that we have heard the words of this text a couple of times. Hopefully some things have stood out to you as I have read. It seems with all that we are bombarded with on the nightly news, or in our families, or even in our work or school situations we are all dealing with some aspect of worry, anxiety, fear, or inability to center ourselves down.
So next, I want to ask you a few queries to help you think a little differently about this text and what maybe running through your minds. Please note: these are just prompts to get you thinking.
Also, for some of you, God may already be saying something to you and you may want to stay with that, but if not, I am going to utilize some queries for this specific scripture from the book, “Solo” to prompt more thoughts - causing us to enter the second part, which we call - THINK.
● How do you handle something that worries you?
○ Do you ignore the problem so you can put it off thinking about it for as long as possible?
○ Do you feel depressed and pessimistic about it, pretty sure of negative results, no matter what?
○ Do you spend a lot of energy identifying a solution and working toward it?
● (Whatever your answer, pinpoint your primary way of reacting. See if you know why you handle worry the way you do.)
● Now, consider one worry you have today and how you’ve been dealing (or not dealing) with it. Name that worry.
At this point, I want to read again the text for this morning. In leu of what you have just been thinking about regarding worry, allow the text to speak again to your present condition.
Philippians 4:4-9 (MSG)
4-5 Celebrate God all day, every day. I mean, revel in him! Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you’re on their side, working with them and not against them. Help them see that the Master is about to arrive. He could show up any minute!
6-7 Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.
8-9 Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.
As we move into our the third section - Pray. Sit in silence for a few minutes with your eyes closed. Breath deeply and let your mind quiet down again. Become aware of God’s presence within and around you. [Pause]
Now, take a moment to express to God your concern. Even though God knows the situation, take time to silently tell God about it. (As you do you may want to ponder how your anxiety has affected other areas of your life, such as relationships, work, school, community, etc…)
Ask yourself: What is the worst-case scenario you’re afraid might happen?
Whether rational or irrational, share with God what you FEAR.
And finally, as we move into our last step - Live. To live means to rest, reflect or act as you discover how to take what you have learned in this experience into your day.
So this morning, take a moment to ponder who God is to you.
Maybe God is too distant or you aren’t sure what God is saying, or maybe you have a clear sense of who God is and what God is saying. The important thing this morning is that you leave this space believing that God has heard you. God has heard you and your concerns and is working “you into his most excellent harmonies.”
How have these scriptures this morning “read you” and how is God working out his most excellent harmonies through you?
As we move into waiting worship - let it continue this process - maybe go back and ask yourself some new questions, or ponder some of the other thoughts or phrases that were speaking to you. What is or has God been saying to you this morning?