{"id":799,"date":"2019-01-15T12:57:25","date_gmt":"2019-01-15T12:57:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/?p=799"},"modified":"2019-01-25T15:02:00","modified_gmt":"2019-01-25T15:02:00","slug":"philippians-4-challenge-day-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/01\/philippians-4-challenge-day-18.html","title":{"rendered":"Philippians 4 Challenge: Day 18"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_3969\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3969\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/mtvpastor\/files\/2016\/01\/Philippians-4-Challenge.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3969\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/mtvpastor\/sites\/403\/2016\/01\/Philippians-4-Challenge-300x181.jpg\" alt=\"www.unsplash.com\" width=\"300\" height=\"181\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3969\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">www.unsplash.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Habit #4: Repeat daily.<\/p>\n<p><b>READ IT<\/b><\/p>\n<p><i>\u201cWhatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me\u2014put it into practice. . . I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation <\/i>(Philippians 4:9,12)<\/p>\n<p>Contentment is measured in weeks and months, not hours and days. The Philippians 4 Challenge can be a long, hard slog. Doing the hard work of catching your thoughts and redirecting them, of choosing to be joyful when everything inside of you is screaming can be exhausting. Progress may be only inches at a time. It\u2019s not until you pause and look at the previous few weeks or months that you begin to see just how far you\u2019ve come.<\/p>\n<p>The Philippians 4 Challenge is not a quick fix. It\u2019s not a prescription pill that you can pop when needed to take all your problems away. It\u2019s a transformative way to change the way you think and interact with the world. But never lose sight of the goal: contentment. An inner peace that never leaves, a self-confidence and self-love that flows from truly knowing how loved and forgiven you are. A joy that transcends all circumstances and spills over to bless everyone around you. Believe me, it\u2019s worth it. Keep on truckin\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>WRITE IT<\/b><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/01\/philippians-4-challenge-day-18.html#comments\">Share in the comments below<\/a> and answer this question, \u201cHow has your contentment changed or improved over the past two and a half weeks through the Philippians 4 Challenge?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>PRAY IT<\/b><\/p>\n<p><i>God, may this mindset I\u2019ve begun to cultivate not end with the Challenge. May this be the new may. May you continue to renew my mind until I come to the place of true contentment.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>LIVE IT<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t keep this to yourself. If you\u2019ve seen any positive change in your life from living out the four habits commanded by Philippians 4, tell someone about it and encourage them to try it out themselves.<\/p>\n<p>Use <i>#phil4challenge<\/i> to spread the word about the Philippians 4 Challenge!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Habit #4: Repeat daily. READ IT \u201cWhatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me\u2014put it into practice. . . I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation (Philippians 4:9,12) Contentment is measured in weeks and months, not hours and days. The Philippians 4 Challenge&hellip;<\/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-799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-phil4challenge"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Philippians 4 Challenge: Day 18 - Next Steps<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Day 18 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 18 - Next Steps\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Day 18 of the Philippians 4 Challenge\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/01\/philippians-4-challenge-day-18.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=\"2019-01-15T12:57:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-01-25T15:02:00+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 18 - 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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. 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