June 11, 2006: Prayer, Beauty and Mellowness of Soul
Prayer, Beauty, and mellowness of soul June 11, 2006
If asked, most of us could list the main things necessary to be physically healthy…
What would the list include? They would include a healthy diet, adequate exercise, and sufficient rest/recovery time.
Now if we were asked to identify what the essential components are for a healthy spirituality… we might have to think a little harder…
Think about that for a moment…. Now I want you turn to one or two people around you and introduce yourself… and ask each other what do you think is one thing necessary for a healthy spirituality?
What do you come up with? (discussion in the large group)
Ronald Rolheiser in his important book… The Holy Longing describes what he considers to be the 4 essentials of a healthy spirituality:
1) Personal prayer and personal morality… or integrity… a life conformed to word…
2) Commitment to social justice
3) Being connected to a community of faith—we cannot succeed in the spiritual life alone, we need to walk with each other, give each perspective, remind us of things that we have to be grateful for…
4) Mellowness of Heart
In some people’s minds there is an image of the deeply spiritual person, as someone who is very serious, intense, hard-edged, and is always saying, “I don’t find that funny…”
But as Christ's followers of course we will mourn and grieve in times of loss, but our fundamental posture will be one of joy…
This morning as we look at Paul’s letter to the Philippians, we will focus on how to become a person of joy, gentleness, and gratitude, and peace… i.e. a person with a mellow heart…
Paul is no armchair academic…
Paul in about the year 60 AD is in prison in Rome for his proclamation that Jesus Christ, not Nero, is Savior and Lord… he’s chained by wrist or leg to a Roman guard… There’s no feeding system in the prison… so he knows what it is to go hungry. He writes to the people seeking to live out their faith in Philippi, a patriotic Roman military colony, where they are coming under fire for their faith…
So, Paul from a very difficult place of suffering writes to a people who are suffering for their faith… and remarkably, he writes a letter marked with buoyant joy and gratitude and calls the church at Philippi to live as people of joy and peace in their suffering…
This morning as we look at Philippians 4, we will look at how to become people who are mellow of heart—even during the hard times…
How are we live to live as people of joy, gentleness, gratitude and peace--people with a mellow heart even when facing the winds of adversity?
If you have your Bibles please turn to Philippians 4:
Paul writes:
Final Exhortations
4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
8 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. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
Paul’s in prison, writing to people who are suffering for their faith and he says:
4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! (most of the people in Greco-Roman world couldn’t read so this letter is being read to church at Philippi and it will be as the word of God coming into their community) 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.
One of the marks of the followers of Jesus Christ is that they live with joy and gentleness… the word gentleness more literally is translated “forbearance”—so it carries with the idea of responding with gentleness in the face of provocation.
As many of you would know if you’ve read in the article in the Courier or listened to CBC radio this past Tuesday morning, our church is coming under some fire from some people in this immediate area because of ministry here to the homeless.
Linda Gotts, our pastor who oversees those ministries, this past Tuesday on the CBC and at our meeting for the neighborhood… responded to some scathing things said against the ministry… with grace… (with clarity and strength) but also with gentleness.
Paul says when you’re under-fire don’t respond in kind with fire.
Paul says to followers of Jesus undergoing great persecution, rejoice in the Lord, let me say it again rejoice! Live as people of joy and let your gentleness be evident to all…
How do we become people like that?
He says in vs. 6 “Do not be anxious about anything…
Again the question: how do we become like that… less anxious people?
Paul says, but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving present your requests to God…and the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Paul is calling people who are facing great suffering and persecution to become people of joy, gentleness, and peace, but how?
Paul says pray…
Turn to God… In vs. 6 Paul uses 3 words for prayer: prayer, petition, request… but they are not materially different… (in the Greek the words go from more general prayer to a more specific asking)
So how are we to become people of joy, gentleness and peace…? by turning to God in prayer.
Without God, there’s good reason to be anxious in the face of life’s challenges, but if we know God we can have peace…
You know the slogan…
No (n.o.) God, no (no.no) Peace…
Know (k.n.o.w) God… know (k.n.o.w.) peace…
Paul says you become a person of joy and mellowness of heart and peace, if you turn to God in prayer…
But it isn't just any kind of prayer… that will lead to joy, gentleness and peace… mellowness of heart: but a prayer with thanksgiving…
Paul says, pray with thanksgiving.
It's interesting that Paul says pray with thanksgiving even before having the opportunity to determine how a particular prayer is answered or not… Pray with thanksgiving…
Part of the way we become people of joy and peace and mellowness of heart… is by praying and offering God thanks regardless of the outcome…
Again, Paul's not just some armchair academic here giving advising, he lives this way…
In the first chapter of Philippians he has said… if I end up surviving this imprisonment, I will live for Christ… but if I die that's gain too…!
Either way I give thanks…
At this final chapter Paul says… whatever my circumstances… whether I am in plenty or in want, whether I am well fed or hungry, I have learned to be content…
I have learned to give thanks…
Paul is really trusting God, the wise and loving providence of God… so even before he gets an answer he can pray with thanksgiving…
Part of the way we become people of joy and peace…mellowness of heart even in the midst of hardship is to pray.. but then to give thanks regardless of the outcome…
This means that we possess a deep trust in God's wise and ultimately loving purposes…
It means even when we don't see it… we trust God is working out his purposes…
I've shared this story before, but it bears repeating in this context.
Thomas Merton was a young person who had been a wild partying student at Columbia University, in NYC back in the 1930's. But he gave his life to Christ and a yearning grew within him to become part of a Trappist monastery.
But there was a strong possibility that because of his scandalous past he might be rejected by the monastery (he had just been rejected in an application to a Franciscan monastery), and might be drafted into the army.
He really wanted to be a monk in the monastery, but knew he might have to go to war.
In his autobiography the Seven Storey Mountain he writes:
It was a strange thing…Mile after mile my desire to be in the monastery increased beyond belief… I was altogether absorbed in that one idea and yet paradoxically mile after mile my indifference increased and so did my interior peace…
What if I were rejected by the monastery. Then would I go in the army? Would that be a disaster? No not at all. It would be clear that this was God's will…
I had done everything in my power to enter the monastery, the rest was in God's hands.
For all the tremendous desire to be in the monastery, the thought that I might find myself instead in the army camp, no longer troubled me in the least.
I was free… I belonged to God…not to myself…. I was free of all the anxieties and worries that belong to this earth…
Merton passionately longs to enter the monastery and not the war, but he trusts in God and leaves the future in his hands…
What Paul is calling us to do is to give thanks—even before we know what the answer to particular outcome will be and that involves trusting in God's wisdom and love…
In my preteen years (when I was 10,11, 12) years old, I loved motorcycles…. I loved going to the motorcycle shop looking and dreaming about saving up enough money to buy one… One day, my grandmother was visiting and our family went to the motorcycle shop… and I was admiring the motorcycles… I think I was 11 years old. My grandmother said… you like it… I can buy it for you right now… I was so happy for about 7 seconds, until I heard my mom's voice over… to my grandmother, her mom… No you're not… If you buy him that motorbike, you'll be responsible if he gets into an accident and hurt himself.
I'm thinking, mom, why do you have to ruin my life?
Why won't you let her buy me this beautiful motorcycle?
I guess in looking back… my mom knew what an absent minded, reckless kid I was and how many bicycle accidents I had had! She thought, I want to do what's best for Ken… I was thinking…. why are you trying to wreck my life!
And in looking back… I do know this that she did have my best interest in mind… when she said not to let me get the motorbike…
And I do know this… something may feel like God is wrecking our life… by not answering our prayer the way we want and I do know this that God has our best in mind, and unlike any earthly mother or father he has perfect foresight and has infinite wisdom…
If we believe that God really is infinitely wise and loving toward us, trust him even before God answers and even when God answers in a way that seems contrary to what we would have chosen, we can give thanks…
If we believe as John Newton, the former slave trader in the 18th century turned pastor and author of the hymn Amazing Grace that nothing that God sends us is unnecessary and nothing he withholds is necessary… we can give thanks to God before answer comes…
Larry Crabb last month talked here about how sometimes we pray for something that relates to our school, or work, or relationship, our family and it's not answered the way we want answered…
And we ask why?
Paul says even though our prayer may not be answered just the way we like we are to pray with thanksgiving…
(Pause to allow people to pray for a moment…)
Paul says pray with thanksgiving…
I want to be a person who lives this out.
Do you have anyone in your life who contacts you only when they need something?
I don't want to relate to God that way.
So, I find myself praying the prayer of George Herbert: “Lord you have given me so much, give me one more thing… a grateful heart.
Paul says pray with thanksgiving and the peace of God which transcends all human understanding will guard your heart, literally the word garrison, idea of a garrison of soldiers will march around and protect your heart… as we pray with thanksgiving we will have a peace that the world at large doesn't understand, a peace that comes directly from God and it garrisons our hearts in Christ…
So we become people of joy, gentleness, as we learn to pray with thanksgiving.
If we are grateful we will also be people of joy and we will become less hard edged and more gentle…
In vs. 8 Paul says
8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble (sacred), whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
The first four words true, noble (which can be translated honorable or sacred), right, and pure, can all be directly connected to God and to Christ, but the next two words lovely and admirable come, at least linguistically, from the Greek Hellenistic culture…
What Paul is saying… as he calls us to dwell on what's true, noble, right, pure includes the call to spend time daily focusing on God in prayer and in Word, to do individually and to dwell in community, but we are also to expose ourselves to that which are lovely and admirable in the “world.”
If you were raised in a highly, conservative church the message from the leadership might have been you shouldn't listen to music not explicitly Christian music (maybe the leaders said or implied you can listen to Bill Gaither trio, Michael W. Smith and Amy Grant before she went mainstream) and the only movies you should watch are The Ten Commandments, Jesus, and Ben-Hur!
That's well intended, but not the most helpful counsel.
Because all truth is God's truth no matter where it's found. All beauty is God's beauty no matter where it's found.
A young child was reading C.S. Lewis' chronicles of Narnia and he wrote to C.S. Lewis. This child wrote, I think I’m in trouble I think I love Aslan the lion (Christ figure) more than Jesus. What should I do? And C.S. Lewis replied in a letter, "all that you love in Aslan is Jesus".
Wherever we see truth and beauty, we see a reflection of the image of Jesus.
When we meet Jesus face to face, everything beautiful we've ever seen, we'll see in Him.
So Paul seems to say… wherever you dwell on real truth and beauty wherever you can find it…whether in nature, art, music, books… people…
The corollary is: don't fill your mind and soul with junk… one helpful piece of advise I've received from my professors is read selectively…. don't feel you have to read every word from cover to cover, sometimes you just read the introduction and first chapter…. “If you want to read good books avoid, bad ones. Life is short…
Experience beauty through movies, but don't watch just anything… feel free even if you've paid $12 to walk out. It doesn’t make sense to damage your soul in some way… My wife and I were at a movie that I wanted to see, it was really violent, I noticed my wife flinching and turning, I said… do you want to leave… we've paid $12… it is not worth it, if it's disturbing you… let's go and we left…
Gustavo Gutierrez, a founder of liberation theology, says to have a healthy spirituality feed our souls in 3 says: prayer both in private and in community, practice justice, and mellowness of heart: so we must have good things in our lives: good friends, food and drink we enjoy, creativity, healthy leisure…
Gutierrez was passionately committed to seeing world transformed and become just…
He knows it would not happen, if we are always angry and intense… he recognizes what will change the world are people with a grateful heart… and mellow soul…
Remember Paul is not writing to the church at Philippi and to us so we have more healthy personal spirituality, but so we will be used as instruments to bring God to the world.
So Paul is saying by turning to God and praying with thanksgiving and filling our mind and heart with what is true and good and beautiful, we become a person of joy and gentleness and gratitude.
(The sermon can be heard online at: http://www.tenth.ca/audio.htm)
If asked, most of us could list the main things necessary to be physically healthy…
What would the list include? They would include a healthy diet, adequate exercise, and sufficient rest/recovery time.
Now if we were asked to identify what the essential components are for a healthy spirituality… we might have to think a little harder…
Think about that for a moment…. Now I want you turn to one or two people around you and introduce yourself… and ask each other what do you think is one thing necessary for a healthy spirituality?
What do you come up with? (discussion in the large group)
Ronald Rolheiser in his important book… The Holy Longing describes what he considers to be the 4 essentials of a healthy spirituality:
1) Personal prayer and personal morality… or integrity… a life conformed to word…
2) Commitment to social justice
3) Being connected to a community of faith—we cannot succeed in the spiritual life alone, we need to walk with each other, give each perspective, remind us of things that we have to be grateful for…
4) Mellowness of Heart
In some people’s minds there is an image of the deeply spiritual person, as someone who is very serious, intense, hard-edged, and is always saying, “I don’t find that funny…”
But as Christ's followers of course we will mourn and grieve in times of loss, but our fundamental posture will be one of joy…
This morning as we look at Paul’s letter to the Philippians, we will focus on how to become a person of joy, gentleness, and gratitude, and peace… i.e. a person with a mellow heart…
Paul is no armchair academic…
Paul in about the year 60 AD is in prison in Rome for his proclamation that Jesus Christ, not Nero, is Savior and Lord… he’s chained by wrist or leg to a Roman guard… There’s no feeding system in the prison… so he knows what it is to go hungry. He writes to the people seeking to live out their faith in Philippi, a patriotic Roman military colony, where they are coming under fire for their faith…
So, Paul from a very difficult place of suffering writes to a people who are suffering for their faith… and remarkably, he writes a letter marked with buoyant joy and gratitude and calls the church at Philippi to live as people of joy and peace in their suffering…
This morning as we look at Philippians 4, we will look at how to become people who are mellow of heart—even during the hard times…
How are we live to live as people of joy, gentleness, gratitude and peace--people with a mellow heart even when facing the winds of adversity?
If you have your Bibles please turn to Philippians 4:
Paul writes:
Final Exhortations
4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
8 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. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
Paul’s in prison, writing to people who are suffering for their faith and he says:
4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! (most of the people in Greco-Roman world couldn’t read so this letter is being read to church at Philippi and it will be as the word of God coming into their community) 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.
One of the marks of the followers of Jesus Christ is that they live with joy and gentleness… the word gentleness more literally is translated “forbearance”—so it carries with the idea of responding with gentleness in the face of provocation.
As many of you would know if you’ve read in the article in the Courier or listened to CBC radio this past Tuesday morning, our church is coming under some fire from some people in this immediate area because of ministry here to the homeless.
Linda Gotts, our pastor who oversees those ministries, this past Tuesday on the CBC and at our meeting for the neighborhood… responded to some scathing things said against the ministry… with grace… (with clarity and strength) but also with gentleness.
Paul says when you’re under-fire don’t respond in kind with fire.
Paul says to followers of Jesus undergoing great persecution, rejoice in the Lord, let me say it again rejoice! Live as people of joy and let your gentleness be evident to all…
How do we become people like that?
He says in vs. 6 “Do not be anxious about anything…
Again the question: how do we become like that… less anxious people?
Paul says, but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving present your requests to God…and the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Paul is calling people who are facing great suffering and persecution to become people of joy, gentleness, and peace, but how?
Paul says pray…
Turn to God… In vs. 6 Paul uses 3 words for prayer: prayer, petition, request… but they are not materially different… (in the Greek the words go from more general prayer to a more specific asking)
So how are we to become people of joy, gentleness and peace…? by turning to God in prayer.
Without God, there’s good reason to be anxious in the face of life’s challenges, but if we know God we can have peace…
You know the slogan…
No (n.o.) God, no (no.no) Peace…
Know (k.n.o.w) God… know (k.n.o.w.) peace…
Paul says you become a person of joy and mellowness of heart and peace, if you turn to God in prayer…
But it isn't just any kind of prayer… that will lead to joy, gentleness and peace… mellowness of heart: but a prayer with thanksgiving…
Paul says, pray with thanksgiving.
It's interesting that Paul says pray with thanksgiving even before having the opportunity to determine how a particular prayer is answered or not… Pray with thanksgiving…
Part of the way we become people of joy and peace and mellowness of heart… is by praying and offering God thanks regardless of the outcome…
Again, Paul's not just some armchair academic here giving advising, he lives this way…
In the first chapter of Philippians he has said… if I end up surviving this imprisonment, I will live for Christ… but if I die that's gain too…!
Either way I give thanks…
At this final chapter Paul says… whatever my circumstances… whether I am in plenty or in want, whether I am well fed or hungry, I have learned to be content…
I have learned to give thanks…
Paul is really trusting God, the wise and loving providence of God… so even before he gets an answer he can pray with thanksgiving…
Part of the way we become people of joy and peace…mellowness of heart even in the midst of hardship is to pray.. but then to give thanks regardless of the outcome…
This means that we possess a deep trust in God's wise and ultimately loving purposes…
It means even when we don't see it… we trust God is working out his purposes…
I've shared this story before, but it bears repeating in this context.
Thomas Merton was a young person who had been a wild partying student at Columbia University, in NYC back in the 1930's. But he gave his life to Christ and a yearning grew within him to become part of a Trappist monastery.
But there was a strong possibility that because of his scandalous past he might be rejected by the monastery (he had just been rejected in an application to a Franciscan monastery), and might be drafted into the army.
He really wanted to be a monk in the monastery, but knew he might have to go to war.
In his autobiography the Seven Storey Mountain he writes:
It was a strange thing…Mile after mile my desire to be in the monastery increased beyond belief… I was altogether absorbed in that one idea and yet paradoxically mile after mile my indifference increased and so did my interior peace…
What if I were rejected by the monastery. Then would I go in the army? Would that be a disaster? No not at all. It would be clear that this was God's will…
I had done everything in my power to enter the monastery, the rest was in God's hands.
For all the tremendous desire to be in the monastery, the thought that I might find myself instead in the army camp, no longer troubled me in the least.
I was free… I belonged to God…not to myself…. I was free of all the anxieties and worries that belong to this earth…
Merton passionately longs to enter the monastery and not the war, but he trusts in God and leaves the future in his hands…
What Paul is calling us to do is to give thanks—even before we know what the answer to particular outcome will be and that involves trusting in God's wisdom and love…
In my preteen years (when I was 10,11, 12) years old, I loved motorcycles…. I loved going to the motorcycle shop looking and dreaming about saving up enough money to buy one… One day, my grandmother was visiting and our family went to the motorcycle shop… and I was admiring the motorcycles… I think I was 11 years old. My grandmother said… you like it… I can buy it for you right now… I was so happy for about 7 seconds, until I heard my mom's voice over… to my grandmother, her mom… No you're not… If you buy him that motorbike, you'll be responsible if he gets into an accident and hurt himself.
I'm thinking, mom, why do you have to ruin my life?
Why won't you let her buy me this beautiful motorcycle?
I guess in looking back… my mom knew what an absent minded, reckless kid I was and how many bicycle accidents I had had! She thought, I want to do what's best for Ken… I was thinking…. why are you trying to wreck my life!
And in looking back… I do know this that she did have my best interest in mind… when she said not to let me get the motorbike…
And I do know this… something may feel like God is wrecking our life… by not answering our prayer the way we want and I do know this that God has our best in mind, and unlike any earthly mother or father he has perfect foresight and has infinite wisdom…
If we believe that God really is infinitely wise and loving toward us, trust him even before God answers and even when God answers in a way that seems contrary to what we would have chosen, we can give thanks…
If we believe as John Newton, the former slave trader in the 18th century turned pastor and author of the hymn Amazing Grace that nothing that God sends us is unnecessary and nothing he withholds is necessary… we can give thanks to God before answer comes…
Larry Crabb last month talked here about how sometimes we pray for something that relates to our school, or work, or relationship, our family and it's not answered the way we want answered…
And we ask why?
Paul says even though our prayer may not be answered just the way we like we are to pray with thanksgiving…
(Pause to allow people to pray for a moment…)
Paul says pray with thanksgiving…
I want to be a person who lives this out.
Do you have anyone in your life who contacts you only when they need something?
I don't want to relate to God that way.
So, I find myself praying the prayer of George Herbert: “Lord you have given me so much, give me one more thing… a grateful heart.
Paul says pray with thanksgiving and the peace of God which transcends all human understanding will guard your heart, literally the word garrison, idea of a garrison of soldiers will march around and protect your heart… as we pray with thanksgiving we will have a peace that the world at large doesn't understand, a peace that comes directly from God and it garrisons our hearts in Christ…
So we become people of joy, gentleness, as we learn to pray with thanksgiving.
If we are grateful we will also be people of joy and we will become less hard edged and more gentle…
In vs. 8 Paul says
8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble (sacred), whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
The first four words true, noble (which can be translated honorable or sacred), right, and pure, can all be directly connected to God and to Christ, but the next two words lovely and admirable come, at least linguistically, from the Greek Hellenistic culture…
What Paul is saying… as he calls us to dwell on what's true, noble, right, pure includes the call to spend time daily focusing on God in prayer and in Word, to do individually and to dwell in community, but we are also to expose ourselves to that which are lovely and admirable in the “world.”
If you were raised in a highly, conservative church the message from the leadership might have been you shouldn't listen to music not explicitly Christian music (maybe the leaders said or implied you can listen to Bill Gaither trio, Michael W. Smith and Amy Grant before she went mainstream) and the only movies you should watch are The Ten Commandments, Jesus, and Ben-Hur!
That's well intended, but not the most helpful counsel.
Because all truth is God's truth no matter where it's found. All beauty is God's beauty no matter where it's found.
A young child was reading C.S. Lewis' chronicles of Narnia and he wrote to C.S. Lewis. This child wrote, I think I’m in trouble I think I love Aslan the lion (Christ figure) more than Jesus. What should I do? And C.S. Lewis replied in a letter, "all that you love in Aslan is Jesus".
Wherever we see truth and beauty, we see a reflection of the image of Jesus.
When we meet Jesus face to face, everything beautiful we've ever seen, we'll see in Him.
So Paul seems to say… wherever you dwell on real truth and beauty wherever you can find it…whether in nature, art, music, books… people…
The corollary is: don't fill your mind and soul with junk… one helpful piece of advise I've received from my professors is read selectively…. don't feel you have to read every word from cover to cover, sometimes you just read the introduction and first chapter…. “If you want to read good books avoid, bad ones. Life is short…
Experience beauty through movies, but don't watch just anything… feel free even if you've paid $12 to walk out. It doesn’t make sense to damage your soul in some way… My wife and I were at a movie that I wanted to see, it was really violent, I noticed my wife flinching and turning, I said… do you want to leave… we've paid $12… it is not worth it, if it's disturbing you… let's go and we left…
Gustavo Gutierrez, a founder of liberation theology, says to have a healthy spirituality feed our souls in 3 says: prayer both in private and in community, practice justice, and mellowness of heart: so we must have good things in our lives: good friends, food and drink we enjoy, creativity, healthy leisure…
Gutierrez was passionately committed to seeing world transformed and become just…
He knows it would not happen, if we are always angry and intense… he recognizes what will change the world are people with a grateful heart… and mellow soul…
Remember Paul is not writing to the church at Philippi and to us so we have more healthy personal spirituality, but so we will be used as instruments to bring God to the world.
So Paul is saying by turning to God and praying with thanksgiving and filling our mind and heart with what is true and good and beautiful, we become a person of joy and gentleness and gratitude.
(The sermon can be heard online at: http://www.tenth.ca/audio.htm)
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