Tom Fisk – Press on for Christ! – Philippians 4:4-14

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“The Lord is near. 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.” (Philippians 4:5b-7)

Last week Tom completed our series on Philippians by sharing about how to live a Christian life which reduces anxiety, stress and worry. Paul set out three ways of doing this:
1) Right Praying
2) Right Thinking
3) Right Living
Paul sets an example of all of these things by his faithfulness in prison, his joy and his positivity in the face of adversity. In life we can sometimes fail to pray, think or live in the right way due to our circumstances – Paul encourages rejoicing in the Lord, not to focus on our circumstances. This is a challenge to the church, especially a united church as amongst worries and anxieties we can sometimes fail to come back to God in rejoicing.
Paul also shared his gratefulness for the church supporting him, it is true that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us but it is still good to help, love and support others too. We need to live in the right way; we need to put ourselves in difficult places for each other to help each other out of anxiety.
The Lord is near; we do not need to fear anything, we do not need to be anxious about anything because He is in control. This doesn’t mean our situation will necessarily go away, (Paul was still in prison) but we can put our faith and trust in someone so powerful that He gives us strength to get through when the lies of our anxiety present themselves.