Telling the Truth

Guest (Male): Jill Briscoe shares today on Telling the Truth the second part of her message, "Cultivate Contentment." But first, your generous support this month is vital as Telling the Truth prepares to close out our financial year and step into a new season of proclaiming God's truth. With partners like you, we can reach even more people with biblical truth in the year ahead.

Right now, more people than ever are searching for truth. Through this ministry, God's word is reaching them where they are, across digital platforms and around the world. Thanks to an $82,000 matching grant, your gift today will be doubled, helping extend that reach and keep messages like this one going out to you and to others who need the hope found in Christ.

As our thanks for your gift, we'd like to send you Stuart Briscoe's book, *A Peace of Mind*, a powerful resource to help you experience God's peace in whatever you're facing. So call today to request your copy: 262-788-4648. That's 262-788-4648. Or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. Now, here's Jill with the second part of her message, "Cultivate Contentment."

Jill Briscoe: You think Paul has nothing to worry about? Only a man who has a handle on anxiety and worry, for good reason, could write chapter four of Philippians. "Rejoice in the Lord always." Fourteen times in this epistle he says, "rejoice, joy." It's the epistle of joy. It's the dancing letter. Music. You know what attracts people to Jesus? Joy.

I was walking down a path years ago with a missionary in the jungle, literally in one of the African nations—I can't even remember which one—and we heard singing. A group of people was coming toward us, and we had a group of people with us. She said, "Oh, they're Christians." I said, "How do you know?" She said, "They're singing a hymn."

She said the African church is a singing church. So they'll be Christians. When they came, they greeted each other, these two groups of Christians. Sure enough, this little group of women with their water pots on their heads and their children around them were believers. They passed us singing away.

She said, "You know, when somebody in our area wants to become a believer, they come to my husband, the missionary, and they say—not 'I want to join the church,' and they don't say 'I want to be a believer,' and they don't say 'I want to become a Christian'—they say, 'I want to sing.'"

Isn't that something? I want to sing. All you Christians sing. You're happy. You're joyful. You're contented. I want that. Joy is a magnet. I mean, who would want to join a miserable group of people? What happens when people come into this church? What do they hear? What do they see? Is your life a song?

Paul, fourteen times: "Rejoice, joy. Oh, the joy," he said. "Oh, the joy. Oh, the joy." Wow. I think people are so unhappy, don't you? Miserable. Even Christians. Paul says, "But I've learned to be content." The content of contentment is Christ. Content of contentment is Christ. Not things.

"Oh, if only I was out of this marriage. If only I was in that marriage. If only I was not married. If only I didn't have children. If only I did have children. If only I had a better job. If only I could travel. If only—" No, no, no. The content of contentment is Christ. When you see somebody stripped of everything and they're tap dancing, I want to know about that. I want to know about that.

I remember being in Ethiopia under communism quite a long time ago now. They were busy putting Christians in jail. What they did is they had a big marketplace with the faces of the communist bosses up, and everybody had to go when they were called. They put it at church time so that you were punished if you didn't attend the political rally every Sunday.

The church took that on. They would go to church and all of them would be arrested and put in jail. Then they'd be let out—they couldn't keep hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people in jail all the time—but they would be put in jail, maybe punished.

We were there during one of these deals. The bells rang and everybody was supposed to go. The pastor simply said to us, "Well, are you ready? It's time for church." So we went to church because that's what Christians do. Sure enough, the police came. We were expatriates, so they didn't bother with us, but they rounded everybody else up and they put them all in jail.

We went home and had lunch. I said to the missionaries, "Well, what happens now?" He said, "Oh, they'll keep them maybe two days, three days, and they'll let most of them out. Maybe they'll keep one or two." He said, "Last week when it happened, an extraordinary thing happened."

He said one of our members had been visiting his sick mother upcountry and missed being arrested. When he found out, he was furious and he ran to the jail. He said, "Let me in! Let me in! I want to suffer for Jesus too. Don't leave me out!"

Well, they quit putting them in jail because they were leading all the jailers to Christ—all the communist jailers. They didn't want that. Mistake, you know. So they had to find other ways. Oh, the joy! Oh, the joy. Let me in! Not "let me out." Wow.

Have you ever thought about your epitaph? I'm sure you haven't, but I'm of a negative mind and so I love thinking about epitaphs. I wonder what they'll put on mine. "Here lies Jill Briscoe who never stopped worrying, who worried herself to an early grave," because I am a worrier. This is my passage. This is where I live.

I've worried since I was a little girl. It might have something to do with the fact I was in the Second World War and lived my life in a bombshell shelter and never slept in a bed, and had this nightmare that I still have today occasionally of a bomb with my name on it chasing me all over the place. It might have something to do with that. I don't know, but I was born worrying and I've lived worrying.

I don't intend to die worrying. I'm going to get hold of this, but I am still in process. I'm still a worrier. Still a worrier. Now I know it's sin to be so obsessively worried and not to have learned trust. That's sin.

Now that helps me to know that obsessive worry, allowing worry to control me, allowing it to pull my chain, is sin, because I know what to do with sin. I can repent of it and I can claim the power of the resurrection that's talked about in chapter three.

I can say, "I want to know you, and I want to know your power in me to keep me serene and keep me tranquil." Learn that spiritual art of peace of mind, tranquility, and serenity. I want to learn it because worry actually robs today of its strength. Have you noticed?

What I've learned to do is have a plan. One of the things I've learned to do in my plan, I've learned to attack this with scripture and sitting on the steps of my soul in prayer. I've learned to make it a project. Sometimes that's what you have to do. You just have to have a plan. You have to say, "I will not die before I get hold of this." So you can see it's very urgent for me to get hold of this.

In measure, I've overcome it. In measure. But I can still be so obsessed with things that worry me, especially with my children and my thirteen grandchildren, that I can't function. I can't see other people's faces. Even if I'm talking or listening or counseling, I'm over here, worrying, worrying, worrying. Do you ever get up with that worry and go to bed with that worry and worry yourself all night?

I was teaching Joshua years ago and I came to the lesson on Jericho. I thought, "That's it." At that point, I had a big Jericho I was worrying about, and I would be like the children of Israel and I would walk round and round and round my situation. Worry, worry, worry all day.

I could be functioning, I could be being the pastor's wife and doing this and doing that and listening to people and writing books, but all the time I'd be going around Jericho. I was exhausted at the end of the day. Worry exhausts you. It robs today of its strength.

As I was preparing this lesson, there it was. God said, "Once round Jericho." Once, Lord? Yeah. Worry yourself round it in prayer. I'll let you do that once. Then you go back to camp. What's happening in camp? What's happening in your home, what's happening in your family, what's happening in your church, in your ministry, Jill? They're getting ignored because you're tramping around Jericho all day.

I said to the children, "Once." So you can worry yourself round the situation once and then that's it. You're forbidden to worry for the rest of the day. You trust. I practically started to try and do that. I couldn't wait to wake up in the morning and go round Jericho because I hadn't been allowed to for the rest of the day.

"Oh good, it's nearly 8:00. Oh good, I can start worrying at 8:00. Wonderful." So 8:00 would come and, yes, I would start and worry, worry, worry. I'd try and go slow, but I'd look at my clock and I went right round the situation. I prayed about every single thing in it, and then it was over. God said, "All right, now trust until 8:00 tomorrow morning. Once round Jericho."

So you pray, you have a plan. You say, "I'll bring my worries to you. I will pray with petition and tears, and my heart will be in it and I will pray with all those things that I ought to pray and how to pray, and then I will trust you." That's the hard bit. He worries about us when we worry. The only time God worries is if we're worrying because it's so needless. "Let me worry," he says. "Let me have it. Come on, give it to me." We don't know how to do that, do we?

Guest (Male): This is Telling the Truth, the broadcast ministry of the Briscoes. Jill's coming right back with more about contentment. But first, here's a sweet note sent in by Janine in New Jersey. She shares: "My husband and I love the Briscoes and, of course, the Telling the Truth staff as well. Thank you for blessing us with your anointed teachings. They're so encouraging and really help us with our walk. Praying for you all."

Shalom, peace be with you as well, Janine. That's the kind of impact your gift can have right now, helping more people encounter God's truth at the very moment they need it most. As Telling the Truth approaches the end of the financial year, finishing strong is critical so that many more people can be reached in the coming year.

Through expanded digital outreach, biblical teaching is reaching people across the world who are searching for peace, direction, and hope. When you give this month, your gift will be doubled thanks to an $82,000 matching grant to extend that reach and keep broadcasts like this one going strong all year.

We'll say thanks for your generous support with Stuart Briscoe's book, *A Peace of Mind*. Stuart wrote this resource to help you experience the peace of God in the midst of whatever you may be facing. It's our thanks for your financial year-end gift, worth twice as much when paired with the match, to help more people experience life through the teaching resources of Telling the Truth. So request your copy when you call 262-788-4648. That's 262-788-4648. Or give online at tellingthetruth.org. Here's Jill Briscoe once again on today's Telling the Truth.

Jill Briscoe: You can't worry and pray at the same time, I've found out. You can't worry and really pray at the same time. And it's with petition. Listen to this from the message: "Lay your petitions and praises. Shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. And before you know it, a sense of God-wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life. It's wonderful."

Listen to me. I know. I'm the world's worrier. But when I'm able to let it go and to be obedient—"do not worry"—be obedient, do what you're told. When I'm able to do that, it's wonderful what happens, for Christ displaces worry.

So what I do is I take my worry and I shape it into a prayer. It hates that! It squirms. It tries to get out. "Oh no, no, she's coming!" And I take my very worry. I do not thank God and praise God for something outside the situation. I look in the situation and I take that very worry about a very difficult, hard situation that should be concerned about, and I shape it, I make it into a prayer and I give it to God. That's what you have to do.

Then I find things in the situation to thank him for. "Well, I thank you it's not worse than it is. And I thank you it's a little bit better than it was. And I thank you for what I'm going to learn of you. And I thank you that what happened to me is going to happen for other people. And I thank you, and I thank you." But thank him in the situation for the situation. Worries hate that! They hate it. And the peace of God settles us down.

Now, this is an interesting word. "Will garrison your heart, will guard your heart," it says in some of your Bibles. It's a military term. Peacekeepers. Oh, don't we have a picture of that in our world today? The blue helmets. I remember years ago, for I serve World Relief on their board, being sent to Croatia in the Bosnian-Croatian mess.

I was sent down to the border. I had twelve women with me in a delegation to help with a thousand refugees coming over from Serbia on a daily basis. It was very traumatic. The demarcation line where the peacekeepers were sent was down the middle of a village street. Half the houses were in Croatia, and the other half were in Bosnia and Serbia.

The people over here were streaming into Croatia for safety. I stood with a man watching his house being possessed by Serbians and them going through his stuff and throwing things out of the window and the door. He had a baby in his arms, all he had left. He was a grandfather. "So that's my house." It was very dangerous at that point.

The Serbians took over those houses and they went up to the attics, and it was a wonderful vantage point because they could point their guns out across the street. Behind the first row of houses was a hospital. So they began to pick off the people in the beds in the hospital. I mean, it was that point of the conflict. It was pretty scary.

I was scared. We were all scared. But here we were at the receiving center, trying to get these people and get them to safety and give them clothes, process them and everything. Then one day, the blue helmets arrived.

They came to Peter Kuzmic, who was the pastor who had this great big seminary right on the border there and was in charge of this rescue operation. They said, "Doctor Kuzmic, we have come. We will surround you today. We will put a guard around you and you can do your work without fear."

So they did. When I walked to my little table to start the processing that day and welcome the first of the refugees, I looked up, and all around me were blue helmets. Peacekeepers. I remember I relaxed.

Even though I heard the gunshots, even though there's a bang here and a bang there and bombs were going off and all of that stuff, you know, I never thought about it because the peacekeepers garrisoned my heart and my life. Paul says that's what will happen. You do your part: refuse to worry, pray about everything, don't worry about anything. With prayer and petition and thanksgiving let your requests be known to God, and the peace of God will settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ replaces worry at the center of your life.

Paul talks about the ultimate contentment and he says, "You know something? My God will meet all your needs according to his riches in Christ Jesus." He could say that because God had met the needs of his life—the need for freedom. Stuart and I have just been in restricted countries where there is no religious freedom, where people go from house to cellar to place to try and meet with other Christians. They're waiting all the time for the knock on the door or the little bell to ring to say they've come. Scatter!

These people are free. They're free. Absolutely incredible. We get hardship and inconvenience mixed up in the West. They are living in hardship and they call it inconvenience. "Oh, what a nuisance, the police are here again. Now we'll have to go somewhere else. Oh dear, dear, dear." We would say, "Oh, persecution! Poor little me!" No, no. It's just inconvenience. Inconvenience, because the peace of God settles them down.

And he is meeting all their needs. My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in Christ Jesus. Yes, he will. Yes, he does. That's the sort of God he is. My God will meet all your need according to his glorious riches in Christ. So what's your need? Do you need liberty? Do you need serenity? Do you need joy, hilarity? Which of the spiritual arts do you need to be practicing? Well, God will give you the power of the resurrection to figure it out and to find victory in your life.

Guest (Male): Jill Briscoe on today's Telling the Truth. She'll be right back to talk about her greatest battle that robs her of contentment and joy. We're in a pivotal moment for Telling the Truth. As the financial year comes to a close, your support now can help us reach even more people with God's word in the year ahead. More people than ever are searching for real peace, and through this ministry, biblical truth is reaching them in those moments across digital platforms and around the world.

Thankfully, a group of generous friends has offered an $82,000 matching grant, doubling your gift this month to extend that outreach even further. Your generous gift today, worth double when matched, will help more people experience life through the teaching and resources of Telling the Truth. As thanks for your gift, we'll send you Stuart Briscoe's book, *A Peace of Mind*. Stuart wrote this resource to help you experience the peace of God in any circumstance you may be facing.

Simply request your copy when you call today and give a gift to help keep the ministry of Telling the Truth going around the world. Call 262-788-4648. That's 262-788-4648. Or give online at tellingthetruth.org. And now Jill's here for a candid chat about contentment in her life.

Jill, you mentioned you struggle with being a worrier. And though you've said it's an ongoing battle, how can one learn to trust and not worry?

Jill Briscoe: Well, you have to wait till you're in heaven. Okay? I mean, I don't believe there's a person on earth that will manage never to worry again till they go to heaven. That's not possible. And I think there is some worrying that is authentic or permissible. It's called over-concern.

Paul talks about it. He says, "I've nobody like Timothy," I think it is. "I've nobody like this man who loves you and has such concern—godly concern." That sort of worrying's fine. We should worry about people. I mean, the idea of going through life and not worrying about somebody going to hell in a handbasket just doesn't make it for me.

Why wouldn't we worry in the right sense? And there is a godly concern that we all ought to have when we look at our world. How can we be going shopping when people are behaving like they're behaving around us? You know? And so it isn't a question of getting rid of all of worry so I can enjoy a worry-less life.

It's sorting out the worries. There are some worries that do no good to worry; it just empties today of its strength, doesn't it? And certainly you're not ready when tomorrow comes. And so it's saying to the Lord, "Do you want me to be concerned about this? Do you want me to try everywhere I can to see to this worry? Or is it something I just need to bear and I need to care this much? And if so, then let my caring matter."

Should I write about it? Should I go? Should I have a ministry of presence? Or is there anything I can do if my worry involves somebody else? Most of my worries are things that never will happen, or might never happen. It's that word "might," isn't it? Because if it might, it might not. Or if it might not, it might. And so there is no worry on earth that we can say will never happen, never come to fruition. Time with the Lord takes care of most of the worry, and I ask him to leave me the godly concern I need to have. And that's how I handle most of my worries.

Guest (Male): Thanks so much, Jill. We hope today's message encouraged you. And before we go, here's something important to remember: there's still time to make a meaningful impact before the end of this financial year and help reach many more people with the truth of God in the year ahead.

Right now, your gift will be doubled through an $82,000 matching grant, helping extend biblical teaching to people searching for peace, hope, and direction. As thanks for your gift, we'll send you Stuart Briscoe's book, *A Peace of Mind*, a resource designed to help you experience God's steady peace in whatever you're facing.

So call now to give, knowing your gift will be doubled, and remember to request your resource with our thanks when you do: 262-788-4648. That's 262-788-4648. Or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. Thanks for listening today. Join us tomorrow as Stuart Briscoe begins a message about the best news you could ever possibly hear. Experience life next time on Telling the Truth.