I was on a flight to Toronto beside a woman whose nose was in a book. I hunkered down in the window seat with my Bible and notepad and studied through the flight. We didn’t chat until time to land, at which point she looked over and commented about my studying the Bible. I told her I enjoyed studying the Bible very much. She told me she was the national director of human resources for a large automotive company, and that she had read her Bible in younger years. On one occasion, she said, she had been asked to give a recitation. She had several choices of material, but she had chosen a passage from the Bible, and it had meant a great deal to her at the time.

“Oh,” I said, “what passage did you read?”

“It was from, now, let me see . . . what was it? Fallopians?”

“You mean Philippians?”

“Yes,” she said, “Philippians. Maybe it was . . . is there a chapter 4?”

“Was it this passage?” I asked, and then I quoted Philippians 4:4–9 to her, word for word. To my surprise, she grew visibly flustered and emotional. She broke into tears and started fanning herself with her hands, saying, “I don’t know what’s happening to me. I’m not usually like this at all.”

She hauled up her purse—it was the size of a small Saint Bernard—and began searching for a tissue, which was nowhere to be found. The tears ran down her cheeks and she mopped them up with her palms. I offered my handkerchief.

“I’ve been so busy and so stressed,” she explained, wiping her eyes, “that I’ve been short with people recently and I’ve been demanding and difficult and worried. And here you are, quoting something to me I learned long ago and had forgotten. I guess I needed to remember those words again.”

By the time she composed herself, we were herded off the plane like cattle, all of us late for connecting flights. I didn’t even get the woman’s name. But what a blessing to share Philippians 4 with her and to see the effect these simple words had on her thoughts and feelings. She badly needed to refocus her mind on truths she had learned long ago, but which had vanished from her memory like a dissipating mist.

When our minds are overtaken with worry, distress, or discouragement, there’s only one thing to do. We have to remember. We have to call to mind the truths we need. We have to take control of our thoughts and stop listening to ourselves and start talking to ourselves. We have to preach to ourselves, lecture ourselves, exhort ourselves. In short, we must go on to the next verse in Paul’s prescription for a better life—the practice of thinking. Philippians 4:8 says:

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Robert J. Morgan, Worry Less, Live More: God’s Prescription for a Better Life (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2017).

We have just released a new Bible study on based on Robert Morgan's book, Worry Less, Live More

These lessons are available on Amazon, as well as a part of my Good Questions Have Groups Talking Subscription Service. Like Netflix for Bible Lessons, one low subscription gives you access to all our lessons--thousands of them. For a medium-sized church, lessons are as little as $10 per teacher per year.

Sessions include:

The Practice of Rejoicing

The Practice of Gentleness

The Practice of Nearness

The Practice of Prayer

The Practice of Thanksgiving

The Practice of Thinking

The Practice of Discipleship

The Practice of Peace