Thinking, Thanking, Loving

Scripture

Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:6-7 KJV

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Big idea

Summary

Keller opens with Paul as a case study in endurance, whose calling from the beginning included a divine warning of how much he must suffer (Acts 9:15–16) and whose letters catalogue beatings, imprisonment, shipwreck, and betrayal. Writing from prison, Paul nonetheless offers believers a peace that “surpasses understanding,” and Keller identifies three disciplines behind it: thinking, deliberately fixing the mind on what is true, noble, and eternal rather than on temporary distractions or relaxation techniques; and thanking, bringing every request to God with gratitude that acknowledges his sovereignty rather than only anxiety about the outcome.

The third discipline, reordering our loves, is in some ways the chapter’s deepest claim: Keller argues our restlessness in suffering usually traces not to loving our career, family, or health too much in absolute terms, but to loving God too little in proportion to them, so that when those lesser loves are threatened, they take on a weight only God was meant to bear. True Christian peace, he insists, does not begin by denying how bad a situation is, but by facing it honestly while those loves are rightly ordered beneath a greater love for God, which is what let Paul say from prison that he had “learned the secret of being content in any and every situation.”

Key points

• Paul’s calling included an explicit warning about how much he would suffer (Acts 9:15–16), and his letters detail severe, repeated hardship.
• Paul’s peace, described in Philippians 4, is not the absence of trouble but a peace that “passes understanding” in the middle of it.
• The discipline of “thinking” means deliberately fixing the mind on eternal, noble truths rather than on temporary distraction or relaxation.
• The discipline of “thanking” means bringing every request to God with gratitude, acknowledging his sovereignty rather than only anxiety.
• The discipline of “reordering our loves” diagnoses restlessness in suffering as loving God too little relative to our other loves, not loving those other things too much in themselves.
• Christian peace, Keller insists, does not start by denying how bad things are, but by facing them honestly within rightly ordered loves.

Illustrations & stories

• Paul’s own catalogue of sufferings across his letters (beatings, imprisonment, shipwreck, betrayal) and his calling in Acts 9:15–16.
• Philippians 4’s instructions on prayer, thanksgiving, and right thinking, written from prison.
• St. Augustine’s line, quoted in the chapter, that “only love of the immutable can bring tranquility.”

Notable line

You must reorder your loves.

Timothy Keller, Walking with God through Pain and Suffering, ch. 15

For reflection and discussion

1. Paul wrote about “peace that passes understanding” from prison. What makes that different from simple optimism or denial?
2. Which of the three disciplines (thinking, thanking, reordering loves) do you find hardest to practice when you’re suffering?
3. Keller says restlessness comes from loving God “too little in proportion” to other things, not loving those things too much absolutely. Does that distinction ring true to you?
4. What would it look like, concretely, to “thank” God in the middle of a hardship you haven’t resolved?
5. Augustine said only love of the eternal brings tranquility. What have you tried to love as if it were eternal, and what happened when it was threatened?