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Philippians 4:
1.Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved. 2. I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord. 3. Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women, who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.
4. Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. 5. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand;
6. do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
8. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me: practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
10.I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. 11. Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. 12. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. 13. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
In life we all face days of wonder and days of lack. Days of feasting and days of famine. These things are common to almost everyone. We all struggle when we have hard times and wonder if we are forsaken or if God is displeased with us. This is not the case. Our God will never forsake us and in good times and bad and in feast or famine He is always with us.
I woke up this morning to the voice of my Father speaking to me one phrase. He said: “Paul had secrets.” I wondered on this for a moment, and as always when Father speaks to me I know he is trying to teach me something. All that I do in this blog and podcast is take the things he shares with me and share them with you so I know that he was speaking to things pertaining to my life and yours. So I got out of bed and he shared these things with me and I wrote them down to share with you.
So many of us who grew up with the so called “faith message” were taught to never admit we are struggling and never to confess anything negative. This sounds good on the surface but when you compare it to the truth in scripture it doesn’t hold water. Jesus was hungry and thirsty. All the apostles struggled with hunger and famine and danger and even death. Even in the chapter we just read the great Apostle Paul admitted he had days of plenty and days of hunger so what was his secret to keeping his faith through all these things?
There are several of them and they are listed in this chapter of Philippians.
We begin with verse two where it says “I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord.”
The first thing is to settle as many disagreements you have. Notice it didn’t say to agree about everything but to agree in the Lord. We must put aside silly disagreements and agree in the things that are common to our faith. This keeps us in the will of God and in his provision.
The second thing is in verse four where it says “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Notice it didn’t say rejoice when things are good and not to rejoice when they are bad. It said to rejoice always.
I looked up the word that we call rejoice and it means to delight in God’s grace. Even when things are bad we should delight in his grace because we know that hard times are temporary but heaven is forever.
Thirdly: Verse five says “Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. Which means to be considerate to everyone. Jesus is always present and we should be kind to everyone. Each of us suffers hardship and we should encourage each other and lift each other up.
When we are in days of abundance we should not look down on those who are struggling because we understand what they are going through. Just because someone is struggling doesn’t mean they are in sin or not in faith. If that were the case everyone in scripture including our Lord would be disqualified. Jesus our Lord was and is the King of Glory but he laid aside his riches and died naked on a cross with nothing. Peter had no money to give the lame man. Paul was in peril and in hunger often. Timothy was sick. Hardship is common to everyone.
Fourthly: Verses six and seven say “do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
When we are in hard times we should never let anxiety set in. We have already read about rejoicing and knowing that the Lord is always with us and He will never leave us. There is one important point in these verses that I would like to point out. Father gave them to me by revelation one day. He had me read these verses over and over out loud and finally it hit me. It says “With thanksgiving let your request be made known to God.”
Do you remember that Jesus told us that our Father already knows what we need before we ask him? So we make our requests not by begging but with thanksgiving. We know he knows what we need so if we will just give him thanks, then whatever we need will show up in our lives.
When we have a need we go to him in prayer and thank him for his goodness and thank him that the only reason we have a need in our lives is so that he can be our provider. We give thanks to him for meeting our needs until they arrive.
Philippians 4:
1.Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved. 2. I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord. 3. Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women, who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.
4. Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. 5. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand;
6. do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
8. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me: practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
10.I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. 11. Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. 12. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. 13. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
In life we all face days of wonder and days of lack. Days of feasting and days of famine. These things are common to almost everyone. We all struggle when we have hard times and wonder if we are forsaken or if God is displeased with us. This is not the case. Our God will never forsake us and in good times and bad and in feast or famine He is always with us.
I woke up this morning to the voice of my Father speaking to me one phrase. He said: “Paul had secrets.” I wondered on this for a moment, and as always when Father speaks to me I know he is trying to teach me something. All that I do in this blog and podcast is take the things he shares with me and share them with you so I know that he was speaking to things pertaining to my life and yours. So I got out of bed and he shared these things with me and I wrote them down to share with you.
So many of us who grew up with the so called “faith message” were taught to never admit we are struggling and never to confess anything negative. This sounds good on the surface but when you compare it to the truth in scripture it doesn’t hold water. Jesus was hungry and thirsty. All the apostles struggled with hunger and famine and danger and even death. Even in the chapter we just read the great Apostle Paul admitted he had days of plenty and days of hunger so what was his secret to keeping his faith through all these things?
There are several of them and they are listed in this chapter of Philippians.
We begin with verse two where it says “I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord.”
The first thing is to settle as many disagreements you have. Notice it didn’t say to agree about everything but to agree in the Lord. We must put aside silly disagreements and agree in the things that are common to our faith. This keeps us in the will of God and in his provision.
The second thing is in verse four where it says “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Notice it didn’t say rejoice when things are good and not to rejoice when they are bad. It said to rejoice always.
I looked up the word that we call rejoice and it means to delight in God’s grace. Even when things are bad we should delight in his grace because we know that hard times are temporary but heaven is forever.
Thirdly: Verse five says “Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. Which means to be considerate to everyone. Jesus is always present and we should be kind to everyone. Each of us suffers hardship and we should encourage each other and lift each other up.
When we are in days of abundance we should not look down on those who are struggling because we understand what they are going through. Just because someone is struggling doesn’t mean they are in sin or not in faith. If that were the case everyone in scripture including our Lord would be disqualified. Jesus our Lord was and is the King of Glory but he laid aside his riches and died naked on a cross with nothing. Peter had no money to give the lame man. Paul was in peril and in hunger often. Timothy was sick. Hardship is common to everyone.
Fourthly: Verses six and seven say “do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
When we are in hard times we should never let anxiety set in. We have already read about rejoicing and knowing that the Lord is always with us and He will never leave us. There is one important point in these verses that I would like to point out. Father gave them to me by revelation one day. He had me read these verses over and over out loud and finally it hit me. It says “With thanksgiving let your request be made known to God.”
Do you remember that Jesus told us that our Father already knows what we need before we ask him? So we make our requests not by begging but with thanksgiving. We know he knows what we need so if we will just give him thanks, then whatever we need will show up in our lives.
When we have a need we go to him in prayer and thank him for his goodness and thank him that the only reason we have a need in our lives is so that he can be our provider. We give thanks to him for meeting our needs until they arrive.
Not some big long process of believing and standing and quoting scriptures until we twist God’s arm and force him to give us something. That is not faith. Think about it. What do we call people who use repetitive words and try to control someone with them? Do we not call that witchcraft?
Our Father is not that way. He knows what we need and he is delighted to give it to us. He doesn’t have to be convinced or bribed or coerced into giving us our needs. He loves us and cares for us because of that love.
The only reason we have good times and bad times is so we can learn to trust him in both and so that we can learn to be patient. We are in “training for reigning” and we have to go through hard times and be trained to rule with him. So once we see our lives as “boot camp” for our next mission then we will look at it differently. Didn’t Paul teach us this when he boasted about the hardships he had endured?
Finally, the last point I’d like to share begins in verse eight where it says:
“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me; practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
In good times and bad we should always keep our minds set on the goodness of God. God’s goodness does not rise when we are blessed and fall when we lack. He is good all the time. We must learn to set our minds upon him at all times and keep his goodness before our eyes. We must practice all these things especially in hard times. The result, as he said is that the God of peace will be with us. Our strength to face good days and bad days is not in ourselves but in Christ alone. He is our strength and we can do all things through him.
These are the secrets of Paul but not only for him. He shared them with us and now they are our secrets also. Now Paul has secrets and we have secrets also.
I hope you are encouraged by these words.
Until next time,
Grow Rich in His Grace,
I love you all,
Our Father is not that way. He knows what we need and he is delighted to give it to us. He doesn’t have to be convinced or bribed or coerced into giving us our needs. He loves us and cares for us because of that love.
The only reason we have good times and bad times is so we can learn to trust him in both and so that we can learn to be patient. We are in “training for reigning” and we have to go through hard times and be trained to rule with him. So once we see our lives as “boot camp” for our next mission then we will look at it differently. Didn’t Paul teach us this when he boasted about the hardships he had endured?
Finally, the last point I’d like to share begins in verse eight where it says:
“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me; practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
And this brings us to the main secret of all these things. Beginning in verse eleven:
11. Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. 12. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. 13. I can do all things through him who strengthens me
In good times and bad we should always keep our minds set on the goodness of God. God’s goodness does not rise when we are blessed and fall when we lack. He is good all the time. We must learn to set our minds upon him at all times and keep his goodness before our eyes. We must practice all these things especially in hard times. The result, as he said is that the God of peace will be with us. Our strength to face good days and bad days is not in ourselves but in Christ alone. He is our strength and we can do all things through him.
These are the secrets of Paul but not only for him. He shared them with us and now they are our secrets also. Now Paul has secrets and we have secrets also.
I hope you are encouraged by these words.
Until next time,
Grow Rich in His Grace,
I love you all,
michael
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