Today’s verse is from Phillipians 4:8 and 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 and the God of peace will be with you.
Many of you are familiar with life coach Tommy Newberry who wrote a book called the 4:8 Principle which is based on this verse. His premise is very simple – we can only consciously hold one thought in our head at a time so we should intentionally choose to focus on the positive things in life in order to find God’s peace.
So if it is that simple, why do we find ourselves so often focused on the negative things in life like self-doubt, criticisms of others, grudges, gossip, and conflict. Paul knew how weak we are and understood our tendency to focus on the negative which is why he spelled it out in such clear language. God inspired Paul to write words because He truly does want us to have the Peace that only He can provide.
Psychological experiments have proven that it is impossible to suppress thoughts. In fact, trying to suppress them actually causes those thoughts to rebound more prominently into our minds. But we can choose to think about a particular thought which then crowds out all other thoughts as long as that remains our focus. If we’re thinking about something that is excellent or praiseworthy, it is not possible to simultaneously hold a negative thought in our mind and, in the process, God’s peace will be with us.
It has been said that running a marathon is simple but not easy. This means that there is nothing complicated about running 26.2 miles but it takes a lot of hard work and effort. Maybe this is a good way of thinking about focusing on the 4:8 Principle – it is both simple and hard at the same time. Below are some questions to help us move in the direction of focusing more on things in life that are excellent and praiseworthy.
1) Do you agree with the marathon analogy? That is, do you think this concept is simple even if it is hard to employ consistently?
2) What are some negative thoughts that you or others you know struggle to get out of their minds?
3) How does focusing on the negative hurt us or keep us from being our best?
4) What are some things that are excellent or praiseworthy that you can choose to intentionally focus on more frequently?
5) If you were teaching this concept to someone else, what are some strategies you would recommend to increase their chance of succeeding?
Men's Small Group Blog 