In this episode of the In Touch Podcast, delve into the profound teachings of Philippians Chapter 4 as Charles Stanley guides listeners through practical steps to combat daily anxiety. He emphasizes the need for right prayer and thinking as essential tools in overcoming the stresses of life. By focusing on God and His infinite power, listeners are reminded of the importance of building a personal, intimate relationship with Him.
Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Tuesday, December 2nd. Is the weight of life leaving you feeling overwhelmed and stressed? If so, the book of Philippians chapter 4 holds timeless principles to help you respond in a godly way when anxiety strikes.
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Many people live with anxiety every day, most of the day, all year long. Do you know how to deal with that? That is not the will of the Father. It’s one thing to have brief moments of anxiety. It’s something else to live with it. It’s something else to find yourself in the mornings waking up with it, on your job thinking about it. It’s something else to go to bed with it, wake up in the middle of the night with it. That’s not what God intends for His children. 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. 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, 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. 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. The second thing I want you to notice if we’re going to overcome anxiety and maintain it is in this next verse that most people don’t realize this. Look in verse eight. He says, finally brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good report, He says, dwell, and of excellence, dwell on these things. You see, not only must I pray right, I’ve got to think right. What do you dwell on? What do you think about? Is it all sports? Is it all movies? Is it all something that’s worldly? How much time do you dwell on your personal relationship with God? I think all of us would agree that the most important thing in our life is our personal relationship with God. It’s the most important thing. It is. Then how much time do you dwell on that? Not whether He loves you or not, but on the fact of who He is and what He’s doing in your life and seeking His mind and His will. And as you think about tomorrow in your schedule, do you think about tomorrow in your schedule, the things that are there in light of who He is and what He wants to do and what He wants to accomplish and how He wants to guide you and how He wants to lead you? And you know that some things are coming up. They’re going to be a little sticky, a little hard, a little tense, a little difficult. Do you dwell on those things? Bring them before Him and say, Lord, tomorrow this could be a difficult situation. I want you to show me how to respond. Show me how to respond in this situation. Don’t let me get anxious. Don’t let me get upset. Don’t let me get angry, Lord. I know it’s going to be tense and I know they’re going to falsely accuse me, but I want you to show me how am I to respond. Right thinking. Right thinking. And if you’ll notice what he says in Paul wrote in a time when immorality, for example, was rampant all through those days and through the years and also through the cities of Corinth and Ephesus and Philippi and all of those Greek cities. Listen to what he says. He says, “‘Finally, brethren, whatever is true.'” He says, think on these things, not what’s false. He says, you’re not to dwell on things that are true. How do we do that? In prayer we ask the Holy Spirit to give us, listen, spiritual discernment to be able to distinguish between what’s true and what’s false, what’s right and what’s wrong, what’s lovely from His perspective and what’s not. Listen to what He says. Brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable. There’s some things, listen, that are just not honorable for us to be dwelling on. Whatever is right, we want to dwell on what’s right, not how can you get the best of somebody, not how can you manipulate some circumstance, how can you take advantage of somebody, but what’s right and what is pure. That is, if you look around today, there’s a lot of impure, immoral thinking going on. Everywhere you turn, whether it’s people say, whether it’s on the television or movies or magazines or whatever it might be. God’s people are to think about the things that are right and good and holy and true and wholesome and honorable and pleasing. The kind of things that Jesus would think about and talk about and dwell upon. Whatever thing is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good report. If there’s any excellence, dwell on these things. What do you dwell on in your thinking? Because you see, the truth is, watch this. If I don’t pray right, I’m not going to think right. And if I don’t think right, I’m not going to pray right. You can’t separate them. If I want to have victory over anxiety, I have to pray right. And I’ve got to think right. Those two things go together. And this is why Paul, in this passage, is saying what he’s saying. And when I think about… the kind of society that he lived in, and the kind of things he had to face. And the Scripture says in Isaiah the twenty-sixth chapter and third verse, he says, those who dwell upon Him, those whose minds and hearts are stayed, the Bible says, stayed on Him, there will be peace. Because what’s the opposite of anxiety is peace. And if I should ask you if you want peace, yes. Well, in the fourteenth chapter of John, here’s what Jesus said. He said, My peace I give unto you, not as the world gives unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, don’t be afraid. He says, now the world’s going to offer you a peace, but it’s false. They can’t. In other words, as long as you don’t have a right relationship with God, you’re not going to have any peace. As long as there’s no prayer in your life, you’re not going to think right. Your thinking’s not right. Your praying’s not right. There’s not going to be any peace. So, we have to ask ourselves the question, if we really and truly want peace and contentment in our life, does that mean there’ll be no troubles? No. Does it mean that there won’t be any heartaches? Does it mean that you won’t suffer? No, it doesn’t mean any of that. But it simply means this, that in whatever circumstance we find ourselves, there is a peace that passes all understanding. Now, this is exactly what he’s referring to when he says, listen, and the peace of God, not what the world offers, the peace of God that Jesus spoke about, which surpasses all comprehension.” How do you explain it? You can’t. This is why he uses this term, he says, The peace of God which surpasses all comprehension. You won’t be able to understand it. But while you can understand it, he says it’s like God puts His hedge around you. He garrisons you about. That’s when he says He guards. He garrisons you about. That’s what the word is. He encircled you with this awesome sense of peace. And think about this. When God has encircled you with Himself, The only way anything can get to you is only if He opens the door and allows it. So therefore, as a child of God, you and I have the awesome sense of security that whatever touches us had to first go through the garrison of Almighty God. And therefore, if he’s allowed something in our life, painful as it could be, he must have a reason for it and a purpose for it. And so we go back to what Paul said in Romans 8, 28, which we quote very, listen, we quote this one with joy as long as everything’s going our way. Oh, praise the Lord. Doesn’t the Bible say all things work together for good to those who love the Lord, to those who call according to His purpose? And most people stop with this. All things work together for good. The Bible does not say that. The Bible says, Romans 8, 28, God causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him, called according to His purpose. That is, those who are walking in obedience to Him. Because He doesn’t cause all things. In other words, all things are not good. And God doesn’t cause all things to be good if you stop at that. But what does He do? He makes it possible. He causes us to be able to have peace, contentment. And you see the very word anxiety refers to pulling something apart in our thinking. The word peace is, the Greek word is which simply means to bind together. And what is He talking about? that God desires that you and I have such a relationship with Him that, you know what, we can’t explain it and neither can anybody else. So, what you have to ask is this, do I want peace in my life or do I not? It’s a choice. You say, wait a minute, I don’t choose all those difficult things I go through. That’s fine. None of us choose those. None of us would say, God, bring it on. I’d never say that. I don’t have that much courage to say, just bring it on, God. But I do know this. that whatever He allows and whatever He brings, He’ll turn it into something absolutely fantastic. That’s the third thing He says here, notice this. And that’s in the ninth verse. So he says, first of all, we pray right, we think right. And in verse nine, the things you’ve learned and received and heard, look at that, things you’ve learned them, you’ve received them, you’ve heard them and seen them, Paul says for me, practice these things and the God of peace will be with you. So what does that mean? That means they got to pray right, think right, and live right, a life of obedience. When you’re living a life of disobedience, you are not living in peace. Somebody says, well, I’m not even a Christian and all that stuff you talk about Christianity and so forth. I’ve got peace and I don’t have God. I don’t have God in my life. You don’t have peace. You’re just lying. I’ll tell you why. Because if you stop and think, you have no assurance. You have no hope of life after this one. You’re going to die one of these days. You have no assurance about today. You don’t have no assurance about tomorrow. You don’t have any promise. You don’t have a God to depend upon. You can’t have peace. You know what you’re doing? You’re living in tension and stress. You may drink it away. You may drug it away. You may sex it away. You may do a lot of things. It’s only temporary. There is no way to live a godless life and have peace. There’s not even any way for a child of God to live in disobedience to God and have any peace. That’s why a holy life is very, very important in the eyes of God. And people don’t even like to think about holy. They don’t like the words holy. They don’t like the words reverence, because somehow that doesn’t fit our society. Correct. But it fits who you and I are, because you and I belong to the Son of God. He is our Savior, our Lord, and our Master. He says, I’ll give you peace, peace that the world can’t give you. And the peace I give you, the world cannot give you. My peace I leave with you. Why? He’s the peacemaker. Why does the Bible call him the Prince of Peace? I mean, he is the origin of it. He’s the source of it. You want peace? You’ve got to have Jesus Christ in your life. And apart from that, you’re not going to have it. You say, well, I just don’t believe all that. Well, here’s what you’re saying. You slam the door on peace forever. And what Paul is saying here simply is this, no matter what you go through, no matter what the heartache, the pain, the disappointments in life, if you will pray right, and if you will think right, and if you will live right, you’ll be able to say what the Apostle Paul said, and that is, I have learned to be content in whatever circumstance I am. Now, I’m sure there are times in my life when I’ll have a brief moment of anxiety about something, so I can bear personal testimony that I’ve never been disappointed obeying the Word of God. Never been disappointed obeying the Word of God. I’ve seen a lot of stuff and I’ve been through a lot of stuff. And what I’m telling you is the absolute, not only gospel fact, but my experience, you can have contentment and you can have peace in your heart when, as the world says, all hell breaks loose. The most disturbing conversation I ever had in my entire life. I remember when this gentleman finished talking to me, I hung up the phone and I was absolutely amazed at the awesome sense of peace that God just clothed me with. And I remember saying out loud, sitting in my study by myself, I said, You’ve been in charge of my life all these years. You’re in charge of it now in this circumstance.” You don’t have to live with anxiety. It’ll kill you. It can kill you physically, can kill your testimony, kill your joy, choke out your sense of happiness in life. It’s a choice we make, and I want to challenge you. If you’ve never trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, you’re not going to have peace. You can surround yourself and fill your life with all the things that money can buy. Surround yourself with lots of people who may take care of you or love you, whatever it might be. But until that vertical relationship is right, you’ll never have any peace. There’ll always be that inner sense of fear, that knowing a way, something down inside is not exactly right. And God made it this simple for you. The Scripture says He sent Jesus Christ into this world primarily in order to die for your sins and mine. And when He went to the cross, He paid your sin debt in full, not partially, because you can never pay for any of it. He paid it for you in full, once and for all, in one eternal act, Jesus paid the sin debt of the entire world. The gift that comes from that is a result of my being willing to acknowledge that He died, that who He is is Jesus, the Son of God, and that He died for my sins. He’s paid that price. And if I’m willing to confess Him as my Savior and my Lord, all that that death arranged becomes mine in total forgiveness and the gift of eternal life, a home in heaven, and everything that goes with all that. It’s when you have that, it’s when you have that and you learn to pray right, think right, obey Him, that what the Apostle Paul said is absolutely the truth. And I want to encourage you to make a very wise decision. Think about what you heard. Think about what you dwell on. Think about your prayer life. Think about your eternity. And think in your heart, what is it I really and truly want in life? Is it not peace and a sense of joy and happiness? You may want what the world has to offer, but you know what? I would think that anybody today who can think will look around them, look around them, look at the magazines, watch the TV, whatever it might be, and see what a miserable mess people are making of their lives. To be famous, prestige, prominence, prosperity, all the rest of it without Christ, what a mess. Are they happy? No. Anybody can look and see what’s going on and tell they’re not happy. They don’t have any peace and joy and no eternal security. You don’t want to live like that. God has offered His best to His children who will walk in obedience to Him. And I’ve simply said there are three things you need to remember. If you pray right, and you think right, and you live right, you’ve got life at its very best. And Father, how grateful we are for Your love for us and for making things so simple. Teach us how to be able to discern between what the world has to offer and what You offer, between what’s good and what’s best, between what’s evil and what’s righteous. what the will of the Father is and what the will of Satan is for our life. We love you and we praise you and we bless you for being this awesome God you are, so full of love and goodness and mercy to your children. I pray that every person who hears this message will stop and think and recognize that I’ve not given my opinion, but simply quoted Your precious Word, eternal, infallible, and the book by which you will be judged. We love you and praise you in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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Thank you for listening to Part 2 of When Anxiety Strikes. If you’d like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
