Philippians 4:4-8
‘Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. 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, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things’.
I love what a friend of mine, Tom Inglis has made as a mandate or a mission for his ministry: Every believer – a worshipper. We are not all musical but we will all be worshippers of God for rest of eternity. This scripture is one of my favourites and I believe shows some powerful keys to receiving the blessings that are ours because of the finished work of the cross. I believe that the more we worship and praise God, the less we need to pray about in our everyday lives. We are not praising and worshipping God to get Him to give us these blessings but because we already have these blessings in Christ. I’ve highlighted a few words and phrases to break this scripture down a little.
Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!
Being a blessed people that are already blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ (Eph 1:3), we should always be filled with rejoicing, not because of the problems that we are facing (things that are temporal), but because of the blessings and favour that is already ours because of Jesus (Things that are eternal: 2 Cor 4:18). Paul places such a high value on rejoicing that he repeats himself. If something is stated in the Bible once, then it’s important but how much more when it’s repeated in the following sentence.
Thanksgiving:
One of the greatest expressions of worship of God is acting like His word is true.
Mark 11:23-24
‘For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them’.
Faith thanks God that the promises in His word are a done deal in Jesus and as such there is nothing left to do but praise God and be thankful that our circumstances will have to change and line up with Gods word, not because of what we have done but because of what Jesus has done. You can’t help but speak what you truly believe (For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks: Luke 6:45).
Requests:
1 John 5:14
‘Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us’.
It is important to know the word of God and to know what she says about your particular situation.
2 Corinthians 1:20
‘For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us’.
Meditate:
Romans 12:2
‘And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God’.
Joshua 1:8
‘This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success’.
2 Corinthians 3:17-18
‘Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord’.
You can know what the Bible says in your head but it not be implanted in your heart. The Bible says in James 1:21 that it is the implanted word that saves our souls. It’s important that we are not just filled with knowledge about the Bible, but that the word of God (the first chapter of John says that the word is Jesus) is implanted in our hearts.
Romans 10:17
‘So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God’.
Notice it doesn’t say, “having heard”, but hearing and hearing. My brother in law is a big truck driver, covered in tattoos he is a real mans’ man that loves motor sport, footy and cricket but he also has another quite amazing ability. He knows nearly every line and song from the movie Frozen. How does a sports mad, Aussie truck driver learn every line from frozen you ask? It’s because his little princess, his daughter Georgia, loves that movie and made her Daddy watch it again and again. He heard and heard the words of Frozen. We need to be hearing and hearing the words of grace and of who we are in Christ until our covenant with God is not just in our head but written on our heart.
Finally: 2 Corinthians 10:3-6
‘For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled’.
We become what we are thinking about. You may say that you can’t stop thoughts coming into your head, and this is true just as you can’t stop a bird flying over your head, but you can stop it nesting in your hair! In other words, you can have a thought but you don’t have to meditate on it. You can think it, and throw it back out. This may seem hard at first if we have got ourselves into a habit of bad thinking but 2 Cor 10:3-6 starts by focusing the fact that the weapons of our warfare are mighty in God. We don’t overcome by our own strength but by Jesus authority that He gave us when He defeated sin and death and rose from the grave.
Philippians 4:8
‘Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things’.
God has only good things for you so start to think on these things and take authority over thoughts that don’t pass through the filters of Phil 4:8. Jesus has already done it all. It’s now time to worship Him and walk in the goodness of everything that He has purchased for us by His blood.
Colossians 1:12
‘giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light’.
God has really impressed on me the importance of getting His word into people’s hearts so we have created some great resources to help you with this with our 2 albums of sung scripture. We have Devotion (sung healing scriptures) and Devotions 2: Promises of peace. We pray that these will bless you.
Blessings,
Peter and Cristie
