Solving for X

When you are having issues with anxiety, people love to quote Philippians 4:6,7:

"Be anxious for nothing, but in 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."

I always found that to be very frustrating. I would try to do what that verse says to do when anxiety over something would overwhelm me. I would pray. I would try to "give it to God" but as soon as I dumped my garbage I would start collecting more(very often the SAME stuff I had just given away). I was missing something. I have come to believe that that "something" is in the verses immediately following Phil. 4:6,7. Verses 8&9 say:

"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. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you."

I needed to make a conscious effort to refill that newly empty space with different stuff. Good stuff.
My plan is to spend some time on this exercise starting, appropriately, with the first in the list- things that are true. If you would like to, think on that for yourself too. Different things will "speak" to different people. Don Truex(our preacher) did a lesson recently called "Think on These Things" in which he offered some of his ideas for things to think on in each category. I liked a lot of what he had to say. I am excited about going back through my sermon notes, meditating on the good stuff in there and adding my own ideas as I go.

That's it for today. As Paul said at the end of this very letter:
"The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all"!