In this episode of the InTouch Podcast, Charles Stanley delves deep into the fourth chapter of Philippians, revealing practical steps for managing anxiety. Drawing from Paul’s inspiring words written from a Roman prison, listeners will discover how to cultivate joy and contentment, even amidst life’s most challenging circumstances. Stanley breaks down the significance of prayer, rejoicing, and thanksgiving as tools to build a life free from the grip of anxiety.
Welcome to the InTouch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Monday, December 1st. How do you handle the powerful emotions that rise up in stressful moments? The fourth chapter of Philippians offers practical help for what to do when anxiety strikes. Join us now for today’s podcast.
SPEAKER 01 :
God does not desire for his children to be hampered down almost strangled with anxiety because anxiety can do many things to you that are very very uncomfortable not all that very unhealthy so not only how do we overcome anxiety but listen carefully how do we maintain a lifestyle in which we are not plagued with anxiety. Does that mean that you’ll never have any? No. It’s one thing to have brief moments of anxiety. It’s something else to live with it. And so, I want you to turn to probably the best passage in the whole Word of God about anxiety, and that is Philippians chapter four. And if you’ll turn there, and I want us to think about this title, and that is, When Anxiety Strikes, because that’s exactly what it does. But listen to what Paul says, and remember where he is when he’s writing this. Very important you remember this. Paul is in a Roman prison, chained to a Roman soldier. And when you think about that, you think, how in the world could a man be in a prison, not like we have today with air conditioning and good food and television, but chained in a Roman prison that has none of that? And here in this fourth chapter epistle, six times he talks about rejoicing and seven times he uses the word joy. And then to top it all off in this fourth chapter, listen to what he says in this, look in the tenth verse. He says, writing to these Philippians, But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at last you have revived your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned before, but you lacked opportunity. That is, they had supported Him. And listen to what he says in verse eleven. Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstance I am. Now that’s one thing if you’re lying on the beach and everything is going your way. But to be in a Roman prison chained to the guard and talk about joy and peace and being contented. And I think this verse a long time ago in my life really got my attention. How could a man live in the circumstances in which he lived and say, I have learned to be content in whatever circumstance I find myself? Well, it’s because he had learned to deal with what he had just talked about. And that is this whole issue of being anxious. So let’s look, if you will, beginning in this fourth verse, and let’s read through the ninth verses. He says, Rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I will say rejoice. Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. Then here’s what he says. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, Let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God that surpasses all comprehension. That is, you just can’t understand it. will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Then finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good report, if there is any excellence and anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. Then the ninth verse says, The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. Now, The issue here is not only how do we overcome anxiety, but how do we prevent it in our life? Let me say again, that doesn’t mean that you’re going to reach some stage in life where you’re never anxious about anything. Sometimes you can hear some very tragic news or bad news, frightful news sometimes, and for a few moments there’s a sense of anxiety. But for many people, that anxiety continues and continues and continues. And as we said, many people wake up with it. Go to bed with it, not realizing the awesome effect it’s having upon your life. And so what Paul is telling us here in this fourth chapter, this is the way you deal with anxiety. And oftentimes we’ll read a couple of verses here and don’t continue with the rest of them, but all of this is important. So when he says, “‘Don’t be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God.'” will garrison you about. That is, build a wall about you to protect you from anxiety. How can a man say this when he is in prison unless he has learned something very, very significant? Something that all of us need because, listen, just living in our society can create anxiety. You get in your automobile and you drive down the expressway, it’s real easy to get anxiety when you think about and realize that everybody around you is driving at least 75 miles an hour or more, unless they see a blue light, and then that creates anxiety because all the traffic backs up. And so, we could just go down the list of all the things that create anxiety in our lives. How do we deal with it? And Paul gives us a practical answer to that, a very practical answer. And that here’s what, if you’ll notice, here’s what he says. He says, this anxiety needs to be dealt with because what God wants us to have is peace. and a sense of rejoicing in our life, so that those of us who are believers, we say that we follow the Prince of Peace, that Jesus Christ is the Prince of Peace. If that be true, the unbelieving world has a right to look at us and expect to find us living with a sense of peace and contentment in our life, because if they don’t see that, Then they wonder, well, if Jesus is all He says He is, then why don’t you have peace? He intends for us to have peace. And if you’ll recall, if you go back to the Sermon on the Mount, for example, and look, if you will, in this sixth chapter, because Jesus dealt with the same thing. And so He uses the word here, worry, in this translation. It’s the same Greek word for anxiety. So here’s what He says in the twenty-fifth verse. For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, what you shall eat, what you’ll drink, your bodies to what you’ll put on. It’s not life more than food, and the body more than clothing.” Then he talks about looking at the birds of the air and the flowers of the field. Then he says in the twenty-seventh verse, “‘And who of you, by being worried or anxious, can add a single hour to your life?’ Well, listen, you can’t add anything, but you can subtract some. Enough anxiety can take you out. Verse thirty-one, do not worry then saying, what will we eat or what will we drink or what will we wear for clothing? The thirty-fourth verse again He says, so don’t be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will take care of the things of itself. Now, why did Jesus spend all that time talking about anxiety? Because He knew that these people in His day had many things for which they could be anxious about. And if you’ll notice what He talked about, He talked about simple things for what you wear and what you eat and and clothing and so forth. And we have to add to that house payments and cars and job and its future and RAs and all the stuff that people deal with. In other words, we live in a society that’s complex enough that there are many things that create anxiety. But does that mean we’re to be anxious? No, it does not. And so Jesus taught that we should not be worried and should not live in anxiety. You see, the first thing that does is this. If I’m an anxious person, no matter what I say about my relationship to God and my belief in Him, if I’m living in anxiety, what I’m really saying is I believe in Him, but I don’t trust Him. Because does He not answer our prayer? Does He not promise to answer our prayer? Does He not promise to be with us morning, noon, and night? He’s with us all the time. Does He not say that the Holy Spirit’s living on the inside of us and that He’ll care for us, that He loves us unconditionally? On what basis then do I have a right living and following the Lord Jesus Christ, seated at the Father’s right hand, making intercession for us? What right do I have to live in anxiety, live in worry if God is who He says He is? If I trust Him, I will not carry worry and anxiety or anxiety in my life. And so, let’s just think for a moment. What are the consequences of that? The first thing I come to think about is the fact that it divides your mind, fragments your thinking. And therefore, as a result of that, if it divides your mind and gets you off in some particular area that has nothing to do with what you ought to be thinking about, Your productivity goes down. That is, when he says, don’t be anxious about anything, there’s a reason for it. It affects, for example, your relationships with other people. It affects your energy and your power to concentrate. And it wastes time. A person who’s living with anxiety, their mind is fragmented about things. They can’t focus very well. Therefore, they can’t do their best at whatever they’re doing. It affects their relationship to other people. They waste their time and their energy. They can’t make wise decisions. People who are living in anxiety make unwise decisions. And so, we could go on and on with the list. For example, it affects you physically. There’s no question about anxiety being a detriment to your physical being. It affects your heart. It can affect many things in you, in many parts of your physical being. But we usually think in terms of the heart first, or strokes, or whatever it might be. And living with anxiety, that tension, that stress, your whole physical body responds to that. God doesn’t intend for us to have that in our life. It doesn’t mean that we won’t have moments of it, but He doesn’t intend for us to live that lifestyle, which is where most people are. And most people can give you a pretty good list of why they’re anxious. Well, if you knew my children, and my car is eight years old, and on my job, in other words, we could just go right down the list of reasons to be anxious. Then the question is, where is our heavenly Father? Where is God? Is He who He says He is? And if He is, and if He’s given us instruction, then He must have an answer, a solution to that, and He does. Notice what He says here. He says, don’t be anxious for anything, but in everything by prayer, supplication, thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. So, if I’m going to be able to overcome anxiety, And to live above that in my life, then the first thing I have to do is I have to learn to pray right. I have to learn to pray right. Somebody says, isn’t all praying right praying? No. That’s why Jesus gave us a pattern prayer in the Sermon on the Mount. And He taught, telling us how to pray and teaching us how to pray. What I want you to see, there are three words here, and oftentimes we just brush right over these and pay little attention to them. But He says, if you’ll notice, He says, don’t be anxious for anything but in everything by prayer. By prayer is the general word for praying and talking to the Father. Now, what does that mean? And here’s what it doesn’t mean. It doesn’t mean just saying, well, Lord, here’s what I need and so forth. And here’s what happens. So many times we only pray about the big things in life. And what happens is we let the little things go by. And when you neglect praying for the little things before long, the little things become big things. And so, when we talk about praying here, and He says, He says, in everything. Don’t pray about some things, He says, but in everything by prayer. What is it in our life we don’t need to pray about? Usually, if we neglect some area of our life, the next thing you know, I have a problem in that area, whether it’s relationships or finances or whatever it might be. God wants us to live in an intimate relationship with Him. And this word involves three things. It involves our devotion to Him. It involves our worship of Him. It involves more than just coming to Him and saying, God, here’s what I need, here’s what I want, or whatever it might be. And most of the time, people have quick prayers. And most of the time, people’s prayers are not focused on the Father, but they’re focused on what they’re looking for, what they need. And so, if your prayer life is coming to Him and most of that praying is about what you need, then you’ve missed the point. The point is, listen, it’s adoration, devotion, love, worship of Him. When we come to Him in that light, we come to Him in a sense of reverence. We’re acknowledging who He is. We’re acknowledging our need of Him. But we are coming to Him and recognizing His majesty, recognizing His greatness, recognizing His awesome power, that He is who He says He is, that He can do what He says He’ll do, and that He loves us unconditionally. When we pray, the best way to get the best and the right answer is to focus on Him. Because what is it that He wants? Listen, God can give you and me anything in the world He chooses to because He’s omnipotent. He has all power. He’s omniscient. He knows exactly what we need. He knows the difference in my needs and my wants. Or as somebody says, my needs and my greeds. He knows the difference between them. And so when you and I come to Him, we know that we’re coming to a heavenly Father who knows exactly what we need. He has the power to make every single thing possible, all of our needs to be met, so that what is it He desires? He desires our love and our devotion. He wants our focus to be upon Him. Because what’s His greatest desire is to build an intimate relationship with you and me so that the ones He died for, those of us who have trusted Him as our personal Savior, He loves us. He wants the best for us. And He wants us to love Him back and to recognize that He’s the source of every good thing that comes our way. He’s the source of some things that are not what we would consider good. But He’s the source and He turns it into good. So, He says if you want to avoid anxiety in your life, first thing, He says you come to Him and you pray. And notice what He says, pray about everything. And I wonder if you think for just a moment, if you think about your daily prayer time, how much of that is spent on you and you alone and your needs? And I’ve heard people say, listen, I have so many needs of my own and so many problems of my own, and you’re telling me I ought to be praying for other people? That’s the reason maybe you’ve got some of them, that your focus is not right. You should be focused on Him. So when He says, pray about everything, bring it to the Father who knows how to deal with it. Because think about this. People who are very, very anxious and not praying right, what happens? One of the reasons they don’t want to pray about many other folks is because they’re so enmeshed and choked by their own concerns for themselves. One of the best ways to deal with that is to start praying for other people. But if you’re uptight about what’s going on in your life, you’re not going to spend much time doing it. Plus the fact, if you are, you probably feel a little guilty. And if you feel guilty, you don’t want to spend too much time in the presence of holiness. So you want to make that real quick and move on to something else. But here’s what he’s saying. If you want to avoid anxiety, pray about everything. Bring it all to the Heavenly Father and be specific about it. Now, notice the other word he uses. He says, and… Prayer and supplication. Well, what in the world does that mean? Turn to Hebrews for a moment and look, if you will, in the fifth chapter of Hebrews. And I want you to notice why I think the Apostle Paul would use these words. And in the fifth chapter, and look, if you will, in the seventh verse. And he’s speaking of Jesus and here’s what he says. In the days of his flesh, that is when he was alive, he offered up both, listen, both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the one able to save him from death. And he was heard because of his piety. Now, there are two things I want you to notice there. Here is Jesus, the Son of God. And you remember that night in Gethsemane, he was suffering. He says, almost unto death. crying out for God the Father to help him through these times. He was heard. Now, why was he heard? Look at this, a very important word. He was heard because of his piety. Now, what in the world does that mean? What does it mean by heard because of his piety? because of His holy fear of the Father, His awesome reverence for God. And we know very little about that in our society. There are not many folks today who think much about reverence or piety or the holiness of God. We don’t like to think about those things. They demand righteousness on our part. And so He says, here’s Jesus, the Son, crying out to His Father. And you recall what happened in Gethsemane. He said to His disciples, could you not even stay awake and pray with Me for a little while? His soul, He said, was as unto death, going through the most difficult times of His life. So, supplication isn’t just coming in and saying, well, Lord, I have a need. And we’ve talked about this issue of crying out to God. There are situations and circumstances that oftentimes create such feelings of desperation in their life that we do cry out to Him. And you go through the Old Testament, read the Psalms, how many times David said, I cried unto the Lord, and the Lord heard me and delivered me out of all my troubles. I cried unto the Lord, and the Lord heard me and delivered me from my enemies. Crying out to God is the outpouring of a heart that’s deep down inside. It isn’t something that’s just lip service. Now, Lord, you know so-and-so, but something that you feel so deeply. And so he says we’re to come to him with prayers and supplications. And then if you’ll notice this last word, he says also with thanksgiving. Now, why would He add that? I think there are probably lots of reasons, but put it this way. How many times have you prayed and asked God to do something and He didn’t do it? For three or four or five days or so forth, maybe a week goes by, and then He answers your prayer. Now watch this. He may answer it through someone else. He may answer in a way that you don’t expect. And how many times did you stop to give Him thanks and to praise Him for answering your prayer? Oftentimes, we are fast on asking and very slow on thanking.
SPEAKER 02 :
Thank you for listening to today’s podcast titled When Anxiety Strikes. For more inspirational messages like this one, visit our online 24-7 station. And if you’d like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
