Bill Johnson - How Prayer Protects You
There’s a picture painted for us in this part of Philippians 4 of a military guard protecting a person’s heart and mind, the place where thoughts come from—the mind itself. That military guard is there because of the previous verse: pray over everything with thankfulness. The other side of this issue, which we’ll read about in a moment, is the amazing purpose of prayerlessness. It is costly. It probably would be worth studying sometime just to look at the cost of prayerlessness. But let me give you two things right now. In Scripture, it says you have not because you ask not, so the implication in that verse is that prayerlessness creates lack. We often think in terms of lack as being God’s sovereign will for our life, and it’s not. It’s just that lack fills in where prayerlessness exists. Amen? That’s a very good point. Amen, let’s keep it up; stay encouraged.
The second issue I will mention regarding prayerlessness is that Jesus taught, «Pray so that you will not enter temptation.» Pray! Make sure you maintain prayer in your life so that you don’t enter temptation. The implication is that if I am prayerless, I will face temptations for which I have no grace. It doesn’t mean I am prone to sin; I may resist the temptation, but the problem is that prayerlessness creates a battle I didn’t need to fight. Prayerlessness put me into a conflict, a war of wills and decisions. Let’s just say I win; I make it through and don’t do what I was tempted to do. The problem is that because I was prayerless, I attracted that situation into my life, which was completely unnecessary. If God designs for us to face a battle, it’s only because He has already given us the tools to win, and He wants to punish the powers of darkness. It’s never so that we would fall or falter. If He allows the battle, it’s only that we get to enforce His purposes on Earth. However, there are many battles that people face that were brought on by prayerlessness. I’m just here to encourage you.
Philippians 4. Let’s read some Scripture together; we’ll start with verse 4. «Rejoice in the Lord always; again, I will say, rejoice.» I remind you Paul writes this from prison; he’s giving us tried and tested truths from his own experience: rejoice in the Lord always. I don’t know if you’ve ever looked it up, but that word «always» means always. Again, I will say rejoice. «Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing.» That’s one commandment I have obeyed 100% of the time because everything I’ve ever been anxious over came to nothing. Maybe that’s not what he meant. «Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by 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.»
There is a picture painted for us in this part of Philippians 4 of a military guard protecting a person’s heart and mind—the place where thoughts come from, the mind itself. That military guard is there because of the previous verse: pray over everything with thankfulness. If you look at the nature of thankfulness, I don’t think we could overemphasize that. I’m not sure it’s possible to exaggerate the power of thankfulness. Jesus, on the night in which He was betrayed, took bread, broke it, and gave thanks. He was about to be betrayed by Judas and forsaken by all the eleven disciples with whom He was breaking bread. He was about to experience the most gruesome death anyone has ever faced—not only the crucifixion, the scourging, and all that He went through, but also the weight of sin itself that came upon Him.
You know what it is to sin and feel guilty and shameful; multiply that by billions of people with millions of sins on one individual. When the soldiers came to kill the three on the cross, they didn’t have to kill Jesus because He was already dead. Why? Because of the weightiness of sin. That’s why He said, «God, why have you forsaken me?» In that moment, He became sin and was forsaken by the Father. The two thieves had to be killed because theirs was just a crucifixion. I don’t mean to make light of it; I’m just saying the weightiness of sin. He became that which the Father despised—sin. But He did that so we could become what the Father delighted in—His righteousness. It was an exchange.
So, in that moment—His most difficult moment in all of human history—He broke bread and gave thanks. I’d like to suggest that these difficult moments throughout Scripture are the moments where He sets an example, a model for us that can and must be followed: thankfulness, regardless of circumstances. Maintaining thankfulness in those circumstances keeps us attached to the life source in a very practical way. Maintaining thankfulness keeps us sane when things are not going right; it keeps us connected to the right thing.
So we have this interesting passage. I want you to look at it again: verses 6, 7, and this time we’ll read verse 8. «Be anxious for nothing,» verse 6, «but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.» Now here’s the result: «And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.»
Verse 8: «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, if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.» What do we have here? We have two verses that give us instruction. The first one is: pray over everything with thankfulness. Verse 8 says: think on these things. These two verses sandwich the promise, and the promise is His peace will protect you, but there is responsibility given to you and me on both sides. The first has to do with prayer and the second has to do with what we choose to think about.
Jesus gave an illustration, a kind of parable. He talked about a human being as a house, and in this illustration, He said if a house has all this junk in it, and it’s clean and swept, but the owner doesn’t refill the house with the right things, the enemy that once dwelled in the house comes back seven times worse. In this example, the house is actually a human being. So here Jesus says, «Pray over everything; I’ll guard your heart and mind. Now fill the house with the right things.» Do you understand? You can think about anything you want; nobody has control over your mind. I can think about pink elephants right now if I want to, and I just helped you do the same. You’re welcome. No one controls that part of our life.
So what’s the issue? When we begin to submit ourselves to the inferior, we allow anxiety and stress to fill our minds with «what ifs» that have no life to them—there’s no promise to them. The enemy is again working to undermine our identity, first love relationship, and this entire concept of being an authentic representation of Jesus.