Art of Living

Carefree times in life are important. Anyone who has been young for a while knows that this is not always the case. There are many times when we are challenged. Can our lives, sustained by a living relationship with God, also be shaped in a different way? This is what Paul is about in his letter to the Philippians.

Nothing human is foreign to us. This does not change when we come to faith. We may have greater confidence, experience a deep communion with God. But that doesn’t solve all the day-to-day challenges.

We care about the future

We worry about things that are still in the future, we may have a financial hardship and do without many things. You worry about the bills that have to be paid at the end of the month. Those who worry look ahead to things that have yet to come. One worries about the future. Survival, however, is in the here and now.

Worrying, I read the other day, is a wrong use of our imagination. I found the comparison apt. Because in fact, what we are worried about is not there until now. We imagine it. We care about what is still unclear. Perhaps we estimate the development correctly, however, we cannot concretely see beyond the current moment. We live as humans only in the here and now. But we stand between the past and the future. With what attitude towards life and with what expectation do we stand in this time? The personal response shapes our humanity. Those who are full of worries always feel this physically. Those who are not well feel this as constricting, oppressive, burdensome – typical analogies to physical reactions. Our thoughts are closely linked to our humanity.

The promise of Paul

Let us now read what Paul once wrote to the church in Philippi. His words are wise and testify to real confidence also in faith:

“Rejoice in the Lord always! Once again I want to emphasize: Rejoice!
Let your liness be known to all people: The Lord is near!
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything let your requests be made known before God in prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving.
Then the peace of God, which is superior to all sense of thought, will guard your hearts and your minds as in a fortress in Christ Jesus.”
Ph 4,4-7

Paul does not start with worries. On the contrary! He urges us to “rejoice in the Lord always.” This does not mean an escape from the world, but a genuine joy. It is about the alignment of our thoughts. Rejoicing in the Lord should not be lost in everyday life, but should be cultivated there. We should direct our thoughts to good things. We should be aware of the gospel of God’s grace. The Lord is near!

Paul here seeks to move the Philippians to give a grateful and joyful place to the reality of God in their lives. That was the first one.

But now he writes further: “Let your liness be known to all men”. This is the second aspect. This is not about our thoughts, but about our actions in this world. What do you want people to see of us? Lindness! This is gentleness, warm-heartedness, action directed toward encounter. To whom? To all people. Without exception. So we should consciously ground our thoughts in the reality of God, and equally consciously stand in the world of God. Here we may tell of His grace, goodness and gentleness toward us.

These two aspects include ourselves as well as the world in which we stand. We may look at ourselves from God’s perspective. What remains is our own experience. This is not always positive. Therefore, it is human and understandable to worry every now and then.

The conscious turning to God

That is where Paul now joins in:

“Worry about nothing!”

Whatever occupies us should not circle endlessly in our own thoughts. We should make known before God everything we desire, everything that concerns us. We should release our worry from our minds and consciously surrender everything to our God and Father. Paul also says right away how we should do it: “in prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving” . In the intimate relationship with God we pray. Out of our own dismay, we plead. We pour out our hearts before Him. We should link both with thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is the packaging of our thoughts, our need. With this, the attitude, the expectation, with this, one’s own limitations are embedded in a trust in His working.

If we “align our lives with thanksgiving,” life will automatically be shaped positively. The hardship may not get smaller, but we stand in it differently. We do not have to give thanks for the bad or for the hardship, however, in the evil we experience and in the hardship we can make an orientation of our thinking. If we don’t get it right the first time, we can practice it.

The peace of God

There is now also a promise. Paul is addressing people like us. They lived in different times, but they were trudging along with equivalent worries that plague us as well. Paul makes it clear that we do not get everything we might like. There is no promise of health, economic success, the fulfillment of certain dreams or similar things. The promise is quite different:

“Then the peace of God, which is superior to all sense of thought, will guard your hearts and your minds as in a fortress in Christ Jesus.”

The peace of God is the promise. Those who care will experience peace when we turn to God. A heart that is troubled by worry can find peace. What do you wish for more? This peace “is superior to all sense of thought”. We may analyze exactly why our situation is disastrous, perhaps even hopeless. These are the thoughts that circle in our head. The peace of God is not the better analysis. It is not the liberating flash thought, with which all problems can be cleared out of the world. The peace of God transcends such considerations.

The peace of God, Paul writes, will keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. This can be read to mean that we may come to rest with our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. “Preserved as in a fortress in Christ Jesus.” There, then, nothing can shake us. There we are safe in God’s presence.

Of course, these are all images, they are words that Paul uses to portray to us the nearness of God, to invite us to it. The Lord is near! Until the words and their meanings work their way into our lives, we must link them to our experience. We store thoughts via emotions and concrete experiences. A word may remain just a word until we set out on our own and enter into the trusting nearness of God. There we experience the Word and their power. “In everything, let your requests be made known before God in prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving.” Paul says: do this and that, and then the peace of God will be felt.

The peace of God is not an impersonal concept. It is not a force that we are tapping into. It is not a peaceful immersion or mystical experience, but peace “from God”. It is His peace that He has and that we share in. Through relationship and trust, this can be felt and experienced. However, it is based on an understanding of God’s nature, as well as His actions and work in this world. The order is: listen, think, act, experience. We hear about His grace, we think about it, we act accordingly (toward Him, then toward others), and then experience life fulfillment and life change. We enter into a relationship.

Rejoice!

For the apostle Paul this was clear. He did not proclaim impersonal ethics. He was not concerned with tradition. He did not preach recipes for success. For him, it was about the relationship with the living God. He trusted God. At the end of the letter he summarizes:

“But my God shall fill all your need according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”
Ph 4,19

This is personal conviction, according to which His God will also show Himself in the lives of the Philippians. Now one could go back to this verse and ask what our “need” is. But it seems much more important that “according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus” He fills this need. The focus here is also on God’s action. Paul trusts that there are things greater and more important than our immediate perception or experience. Those who trust in God place their lives in a larger context.

“Rejoice!” is the reminder of this larger context of God.