Think tank: "any praise"

The "flowers" of hydrangea are actually the "bracts" or stem ends. They
seem to explode with praise for their Creator!

A series on Philippians 4:8.
In her book Calm My Anxious Heart, Linda Dillow tells the story of a military wife whose romantic notions of living overseas were soon cloyed by the language barrier, loneliness, and everything strange about another culture. She was done, done, done—and ready to move home to Mama.  Then Mama faxed her just two lines:
Two women looked through prison bars;
One saw mud, the other saw stars. --(NavPress, 1998/2007, p. 29)
Through that little couplet, the wise Mama reminded her pouty daughter that we make choices about how to look at life, even when we feel imprisoned by our circumstances. The view out the window is either mud or stars…our choice.

I think that’s part of what Paul was getting at as he wound up his list about “things to think about” as antidotes to sinful anxiety and worry. When the “negs” nag on us, we can choose to turn from them and find things worthy of praise. 

The whole marvelous plan of salvation should be at the top of our lists of things “worthy of praise.”  We have a God who:

*will never leave us nor reject us.
*calls us His beloved.
*has a plan for our lives.
*helps, not hinders us.
*can transform disappointments to joy.

 “The older we get,” wrote Charles Stanley in How to Reach Your Full Potential For God (Nelson, 2009, p. 29), most of us can look back at our lives and see how God’s purposes have unfolded over time.  If you and I have chosen to obey and live in right relationship with Him, we can look back and say, ‘I have done things I never would have thought I was capable of doing or would do.  I have things that I have never thought I would have.  I have achieved things I never dreamed of achieving.'”

 

His comment made me think of Paul’s declaration, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”  And where is that? In Philippians 4:13, just a few verses past his lengthy list of “think on these things.” For when we retune our minds to Christ’s thinking patterns, God has a slate on which to write amazing life stories.

Anything worthy of praise in your life?  Feel free to bless the rest of us with a comment in the reply section.

 

Next: final instructions.