{"id":764,"date":"2019-01-14T02:58:44","date_gmt":"2019-01-14T02:58:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/?p=764"},"modified":"2019-01-25T15:31:09","modified_gmt":"2019-01-25T15:31:09","slug":"philippians-4-challenge-day-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/01\/philippians-4-challenge-day-2.html","title":{"rendered":"Philippians 4 Challenge: Day 2"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Philippians<\/a>
www.pixabay.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

READ IT<\/b><\/p>\n

The Philippians 4 Challenge is about getting your heart, mind and soul in shape. While that might seem simple, it\u2019s not quite as easy as it sounds. If you\u2019re 100 lbs overweight and haven\u2019t been in the gym in three years, the pounds don\u2019t come off all at once. Your body will scream at you for awhile until you whip it into shape. But you can get there.<\/p>\n

The same goes for your heart and mind. If you\u2019ve allowed destructive thoughts to run rampant in your mind, if you\u2019ve allowed cancerous emotions to eat you up from the inside out for years, it will take intentionality and perseverance to break those bad habits. But they can be broken. You can experience the peace, the closeness to God and the contentment described in Day 1. How do you get there? Philippians 4 commands four things (things we\u2019ll get into much greater detail in the coming days):<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Choose to be joyful<\/b> (Phil. 4:4) – If this seems crazy, it\u2019s because you\u2019ve been thinking about joy the wrong way. Joy is not an emotion. It is not a feeling. It is not a mood. Joy is not something out of your control. Joy is an attitude. Joy is a choice.<\/li>\n
  2. Pray with thanksgiving<\/b> (Phil. 4:6) – It\u2019s not enough to pray. You need to pray with thanksgiving. Cultivating gratefulness transforms your mind and your heart.<\/li>\n
  3. Think on noble things<\/b> (Phil. 4:8) – Choose what you think about. Think about positive things, your mind will become healthy. Dwell on negative things, and your heart will turn sour.<\/li>\n
  4. Repeat daily<\/b> (Phil 4:9) – This isn\u2019t accomplished in a day or even a week. Daily, habitual practice will slowly transform you into the person you\u2019ve always wanted to be.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n

    WRITE IT<\/b><\/p>\n

    Answer this question in the comments<\/a>, \u201cWhich of the four commands sounds the toughest to you? Which one will be the hardest?\u201d<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    PRAY IT<\/b><\/p>\n

    Heavenly Father, give me the strength, discipline and perseverance to follow the commands you give me in Philippians 4. May the promises come true as I live out your commands.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    LIVE IT<\/b><\/p>\n

    Read Philippians 4:4-9 out loud five different times today. Begin to become familiar with the core verses of the Philippians 4 Challenge. After you\u2019re done, encourage others to do the same! Help spread the word about the Philippians 4 Challenge by using <\/i>#phil4challenge<\/i><\/b> on social media!<\/i><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    READ IT The Philippians 4 Challenge is about getting your heart, mind and soul in shape. While that might seem simple, it\u2019s not quite as easy as it sounds. If you\u2019re 100 lbs overweight and haven\u2019t been in the gym in three years, the pounds don\u2019t come off all at once. Your body will scream…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":607,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[365],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-phil4challenge"],"yoast_head":"\nPhilippians 4 Challenge: Day 2 - Next Steps<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Day 2 of the Philippians 4 Challenge\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Philippians 4 Challenge: Day 2 - Next Steps\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Day 2 of the Philippians 4 Challenge\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/01\/philippians-4-challenge-day-2.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Next Steps\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"facebook.com\/drjoshdaffern\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-01-14T02:58:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-01-25T15:31:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/mtvpastor\/files\/2016\/01\/Philippians-4-Challenge-300x181.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Josh Daffern\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@joshdaffern\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Philippians 4 Challenge: Day 2 - Next Steps","description":"Day 2 of the Philippians 4 Challenge","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Philippians 4 Challenge: Day 2 - Next Steps","og_description":"Day 2 of the Philippians 4 Challenge","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/01\/philippians-4-challenge-day-2.html","og_site_name":"Next Steps","article_author":"facebook.com\/drjoshdaffern","article_published_time":"2019-01-14T02:58:44+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-01-25T15:31:09+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/mtvpastor\/files\/2016\/01\/Philippians-4-Challenge-300x181.jpg"}],"author":"Josh Daffern","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@joshdaffern","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/01\/philippians-4-challenge-day-2.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/01\/philippians-4-challenge-day-2.html","name":"Philippians 4 Challenge: Day 2 - Next Steps","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/01\/philippians-4-challenge-day-2.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/01\/philippians-4-challenge-day-2.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/mtvpastor\/files\/2016\/01\/Philippians-4-Challenge-300x181.jpg","datePublished":"2019-01-14T02:58:44+00:00","dateModified":"2019-01-25T15:31:09+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/#\/schema\/person\/8ac2e15479ad6a320d2082837203cb7c"},"description":"Day 2 of the Philippians 4 Challenge","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/01\/philippians-4-challenge-day-2.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/01\/philippians-4-challenge-day-2.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/01\/philippians-4-challenge-day-2.html#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/mtvpastor\/files\/2016\/01\/Philippians-4-Challenge-300x181.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/mtvpastor\/files\/2016\/01\/Philippians-4-Challenge-300x181.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/01\/philippians-4-challenge-day-2.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Philippians 4 Challenge: Day 2"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/","name":"Next Steps","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Josh Daffern","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/#\/schema\/person\/8ac2e15479ad6a320d2082837203cb7c","name":"Josh Daffern","description":"Born and raised in California, Josh graduated college from California Baptist University and spent two years as a missionary in Africa before coming back to America and finding the love of his life (Robin). Josh graduated from New Orleans Seminary with a Masters of Divinity and a Doctor of Ministry. Josh has been involved in full-time ministry for over twenty years. He enjoys hiking, beach volleyball, reading, playing anything competitive, and rough-housing with his kids. Josh, his gorgeous wife Robin, his outrageously handsome boys Zeke, Shepherd and Lincoln and his princess Elle, live in northern Virginia. Josh also blogs on Patheos as New Wineskins: an Apologist for the Modern Church and you can find links to all his content on joshdaffern.com. Enjoy the blog!","sameAs":["http:\/\/joshdaffern.com","facebook.com\/drjoshdaffern","https:\/\/x.com\/joshdaffern"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/author\/jdaffern"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/607"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=764"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":856,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764\/revisions\/856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}