Anxious for Nothing!

 Read Philippians 4:6-7

There are two short verses today, but they pack a big punch.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Which brings us to restraints & constraints. That’s how Paul paired these verses. Restraints are things that we must not do. Constraints are those things that we must do.

We will take the first part in this service—the restraints.  Don’t do this.  There seem to be a bunch of those in the Bible. Don’t kill, don’t steal, don’t cheat on your spouse, don’t covet what others have should sound familiar, and I am still in the top 10.

Go to Leviticus if you need some more, thou shalt nots. But this restraint doesn’t sound like a command. It doesn’t feel like a don’t even think about having other gods directive.

It is part of a coupling of what to do and what not to do, with the end result being peace, which is more than we can comprehend.

In the middle of this very conflicted world, we have peace, and it is more than we can comprehend.

Consider the words of Jesus from John’s gospel.

 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

That’s a good place to land, in a peace that guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

So, let’s look at the restraints proffered in Philippians. Do not be anxious or be anxious for nothing. It’s a familiar tact.

·       Don’t be anxious.

·       Don’t worry.

·       Don’t’ be afraid

·       Don’t rely on your own understanding.

·       Don’t store up treasures on earth.

·       Don’t think that your anger can bring about God’s righteousness.

·       Don’t run with scissors.

·       Don’t spend it all in one place.

That’s a good list, but it doesn’t include the how. That’s in the second part of the verse, which we will discuss more in the next service. For now, consider that if you can worry, then you can pray. I first considered this thought years ago when I read The Purpose-Driven Life.

If I become anxious, pray.

If I start to worry, pray.

If I am afraid, pray.

If I am selling myself on my own understanding, pray.

If I am starting to feel self-righteous in my anger, pray.

If I am running with scissors, walk.

The prayer part is the constraint part—the must do part. To have any degree of efficacy in the second part, we need to master the first part.

These two conditions should create dissonance in your hearts and minds:  Worry and Trusting God.  We either trust or we don’t.

These two conditions should create dissonance in your hearts and minds: Anxiety and Assurance. We can either be anxious or rest in the assurance that all of God’s promises are true.

These two conditions should create dissonance in your hearts and minds: Fear and Faith. It’s one or the other.

Paul’s counsel is to get rid of the obstacle and pursue relief in prayer.

The promise is that if we abide in the restraints and constraints, our problems will go away. No, the promise is that we will have peace even in the middle of the world’s conflict, confusion, and continuing controversy.

It’s a peace not reliant upon what happens to the circumstance that is elicting anxiousness or worry. It’s one of those, the numbers don’t add up but I still have peace.

If we consider the syntax further, we see that nothing is excluded from the category. Be anxious for nothing.  Nothing means nothing. There is no thing, no circumstance, no force excluded here. Nothing is too difficult or too complicated for God.

Nothing!

I used to run about 7 miles a day, 5 or 6 days a week.  It was a good distance. I could run it, get showered and back in uniform, and finish my day.

I wanted a little more challenge but couldn’t give up more time for more mileage, so I got an old, metal-plated flak vest to run with. It added a few pounds and was good for kicking my workout up a notch.

Had I opted to add a hundred-pound pack to my back, the debilitating effects would have outweighed the benefits. No question.

You can run with a hundred-pound pack for a couple of miles and not have any ill effects. At the end of a long hike in full gear, we would often run the last mile or two.

But trying this for much more than that works against you.

It’s the same for holding on to your anxiousness while you pray to God. You can carry a little burden while you give things to God, but not a lot.

You are still working on the problem or circumstance but not debilitated by it. You still have peace. You might not understand how you can have peace, but you can.

Quit holding on to your anxiousness first, then let God do the heavy lifting.

Be anxious for NOTHING!

Amen.