Healthy Habits
Sermon Review
1 October 2000
Reading – Philippians 4:4-9

An older teacher was once walking through a forest with a pupil. Stopping, he pointed out 4 plants of the same type in different stages of growth. He asked the young student to pull up the first plant that was just peeping through the topsoil. This he did with ease. The teacher then asked him to pull up the other three one after the other. Though the second had rooted itself well into the soil and was much larger than the first, the pupil grabbed it with one hand and uprooted it without too much effort. The third was a small shrub and it took two hands and much struggling to uproot it. However the fourth, a small tree, he could not dislodge no matter how much he tried. The master then said to him that this was just like bad habits. When they are young they are easy to remove, but the longer they are left, the harder they are to remove – some being impossible without God, prayer, and much struggle. As the Spanish Proverb says, ‘Habits are first like cobwebs, then like cables.’

Of course, being able to acquire habits is a good thing. If not, then most of what we do would require much more thought, attention, and effort e.g., cleaning teeth, showering, eating, etc. However, the problem is that we not only pick up good habits, but bad ones as well. And bad habits, be they in attitude, thinking, or action, can ruin our lives, even Christian’s lives. Paul has already addressed some of the bad habits which were part of the Philippian church e.g., divisive attitudes, self-centredness, ambition, conceit, pride (2:2-4), criticism, argument, and complaints (2:14) etc. However, Paul is canny enough to appreciate that mere commands or persuasions to change will not guarantee success. He therefore provides a list of healthy habits that require cultivating so as to displace and dislodge their old ruinous habits.

Attitudes

Paul first highlights the need to establish a positive attitude of joy. ‘Rejoice in the Lord’! V4. Rejoicing in the Lord means to intentionally expend effort in appreciating and enjoying the fact of the Lord’s presence in and around the Christians’ life. ‘Always’ highlights the need for this attitude to be constant, irrespective of circumstances. Paul was aware that to disrupt and displace proud, critical, envious attitudes, a deep change had to take place in the heart of the individual. People had to deliberately cultivate joy, altering the source of such wrong, habitual attitudes – our hearts.

In order to both establish & maintain such a positive attitude, Paul goes on to advise prayer-effort to combat erosive and ruinous anxiety, so as to experience the protective peace of God - prayer-effort which includes thankfulness, another element supportive of an attitude of joy! If we want to change bad attitudes, deliberate rejoicing ‘in the Lord’ and thankfulness for His presence, promises etc. are necessary also!

Thoughts

It would seem that Paul, as modern psychology has discovered, sensed that emotions, fundamental to bad attitudes, are triggered by our thinking. A contented or an excited or an angry person reflects emotionally what they are thinking. To simplify it, when an event occurs (e.g. Someone yells at you), we think about what has been said and who has said it. Then on the basis of those thoughts we feel and respond. Therefore to alter or shape what we are feeling or how we are responding, we need to shape or reshape our thinking appropriately.

Paul commends mental activity which is wholesome and healing compared to the normal course of our thoughts – to think on those things which are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, or praiseworthy, and not on those things which incite anger, division, pride, conceit etc. Doing this would inevitably cultivate a positive pattern of thought, reinforcing the joyful, anxiety-free, forbearing and gentle attitude God desires for us. Imagine the difference if the Philippians did this!

Actions

Finally, Paul brings into the picture the third dimension of attack – the Philippians’ behaviour – after all, some of it was wrong! Paul highlights the fact that attitudes and thinking are both inadequate if they clash with one’s behaviour. The way we act contributes towards our thinking and attitudes. If they would deliberately act out what they had learnt of the Christian faith by teaching and observation, they would soon find their positive attitude being reinforced by what they did, and what they did being reinforced by what they thought and felt. It is the same for ourselves. Paul doesn’t dwell on this long for it is really a reminder to apply what he has already said in the first few chapters.

Conclusion

Paul’s teaching highlights:

Blessings

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