Wednesday, February 13, 2019
And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you. How I praise the Lord that you are concerned about me again. I know you have always been concerned for me, but you didn’t have the chance to help me. Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength. Even so, you have done well to share with me in my present difficulty. Philippians 4:8-14(NLT)
A Scottish minister was an
amazement to everyone who knew him. He
was just so positive all the time. The
parson’s prayers each Sunday were always new explorations of looking at things
from the bright side. If an optimist is one
whose glass is always half-full, this guy’s cup was a gusher. He made Norman Vincent Peale sound like Roy
Clark’s woe, despair, and agony on me.
One Sunday morning the weather was
abominable. There were four funerals
that week, and it had rained through every one of them. It was unseasonably cold, and this early Lord’s
Day the rain was mixed with sleet. The
path from the parsonage to the church was muddy and slippery, and the aging
preacher had slipped and fallen – face-down, of course. By the time he made it to the church it was
late, and the worship service was already in progress. The muddy mess slogged-into the sanctuary and
went straight to the pulpit. One
parishioner poked another in the side and whispered, let’s see him turn THIS
into a smile! The parson began
his prayer, O, Lord, we thank thee it is not ALWAYS like this.
Paul wrote that he’d learned the secret
to contentment, and that’s not a small thing. I have known people (and have personally been)
without this key component to a fulfilled life.
I believe the apostle was pointing backwards to his previous statement,
that fixing your mind on the plus-side (that which is true, honorable, right,
pure, lovely, etc.) is what opens your heart to God. When your heart is opened to God, Who IS
peace, His Holy Spirit comes alongside, lives with (and within) you, and God’s
kind of peace is more than just contentment, it floods your heart and soul with
joy.
That kind of heart-joy isn’t
dependent on circumstances, because this world and all its empty ways didn’t
give it…and therefore it cannot take it away, change or diminish it. It came from God, and it depends
on God – not the state of your health, financial portfolio,
friends, or whether your dog likes you.
This is what Paul called the peace that passes understanding. It’s past understanding, or knowing, or acquiring
without a total dependence on God.
Paul said it was Christ Who
strengthened him with this peaceful contentment. And the testimony of believers down through
the centuries all leans in favor of this; from martyrs to kings, those who have
completely trusted Christ in all things, leaving the outcome to their Heavenly
Father, find a contentment that mystifies those who don’t.
For You Today
If your contentment tank is
running a little empty, let me suggest a fill-up. You do that by emptying-out; lay it all on
the altar before God – your finances, relationships, health, worries, hopes,
and wonders. After all, wouldn’t you
trade every bit of all that for the contented assurance of His care?
No comments:
Post a Comment