Finally brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if their is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
Philippians 4:8-9 NASB
When you read this Scripture passage you may think, “What meets all this criteria in our world today? What is true, honorable, right, pure love of good repute, excellent and worthy of praise?”
Well, I don’t know about you, but I can only think of one being that possesses all of those qualities and that is my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He is all those things and more. He died to save us from our sins, but we often can’t find time for him. We have a hard time giving Him our attention.
Stress is a multi-billion dollar industry in the United States today. The pharmaceutical companies are rich off of anti-anxiety drugs. In Philippians 4, Paul is telling us how we can reduce and even cure our anxiety. All it costs is your time and attention.
I have learned that one thing that causes me stress is paying too much attention to the devil. I’ve told you many times before that the devil loves to use distraction techniques. He loves to distract us from focusing on God. He doesn’t want us to adhere to the instructions Paul gives us in our Scripture passage today. He doesn’t want us to focus on God’s goodness. He doesn’t want us to imitate Christ (Ephesians 5:1). So, he uses evil people and their wicked schemes to distract us. We could pray to God to help us focus on Him alone, but oftentimes we don’t because we are so distracted. We give the devil way too much of our time and attention. This is just what he wants and before you know it we are playing right into his hands. We focus on the evil people and their scheming, thinking that we have to do something about it instead of trusting God. We start to plot revenge even though God clearly tells us that vengeance belongs to Him (Romans 12:19). He tells us He will fight our battles, so why do we give all this time and attention to the devil? Why don’t we just give it all up to the Lord?
Does the devil deserve that much attention? Does he deserve for you to focus on him instead of God? Focusing on the devil causes anxiety overload. Have you experienced that? I’m sure we all have. I can tell you when I am stressed the most is when I start focusing on what the devil is doing. I start to focus on my enemies and worry about them coming against me. Why would I do this when we are clearly told in Romans 8:31 that if God is for us no one can be against us? Let me answer that for you, because I have shifted my focus and my attention from God to the devil.
Now many of you read our Scripture passage today and thought that you don’t have anything in your life that has all those qualities to focus on, but this is what the devil wants you to think. You can choose to have God in your life. You can accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. You can focus on Him. You can put your trust in Him. You can give your troubles and stress all over to Him. You can cast all your worries and cares on Him because He cares for you (1 Peter 5:7). He will supply all you need (Philippians 4:19). He will give you a peace that passes understanding amidst the most troubling of times (Philippians 4:7).
God sent His only begotten Son to die a horrible death on a cross to save sinners like you and me (John 3:16), to give us a chance at an eternity in heaven. The devil is intent on destroying us. Which one do you think should be getting your time and attention? I pray that you choose wisely.
Have a great day!