Have you ever gone to bed at night
unable to turn your mind off? You were thinking about something and just
couldn’t stop. You wanted to stop so you could sleep but couldn’t.
Have you ever been woken up in the middle of the night because your mind became
agitated about something? Maybe you weren’t even thinking about it when
you lay down but it was buried somewhere in your subconscious. Things do
sometimes weigh on our hearts and on our minds. Sometimes this is healthy
and sometimes not. Paul speaks in 2 Cor. 11:28 of “the daily pressure on me
of my anxiety for all the churches.” This sounds to me like an anxiety of
diligence and responsibility. Yet we all know of a type on anxiety that’s
not helpful and not healthy. Sometimes we wish we could turn our minds
off and just sleep!
This Sunday we will be back in
Paul’s letter to the Philippians looking at the first nine verses of chapter 4
(and the last two of chapter 3). Here we find a strong spiritual
connection between Christian prayer, thanksgiving, joy, obedience, and
experiencing the peace of God. This peace is said to surpass all understanding.
Do you know what Paul means by this? Have you ever wondered just how much
control we have over our minds or over our hearts? (We don’t seem to have
control over our dreams.)
The peace of God, like Christian
joy, is available to all Christians. Both are gifts of the Holy
Spirit. If they are gifts why does Paul need to exhort the Philippians to
rejoice? Why does he have to explain how to have the peace of God?
This Sunday we will look more deeply into
this passage of Scripture and especially this peace which guards both our
hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. This is God’s gracious work in us and
for us!
