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Phil 4:4-7

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.  -ESV

Do not be anxious about anything? This comes in the form of a command and surely is relevant for us today in the middle of a major economic crisis and a culture that seems to be leaving us behind. In effect Paul says here—Don’t worry pray instead and be thankful. This is the way of the Kingdom and the path of faith which leads us in an entirely different direction than the dominant culture.

We know that Paul actually lived out this command praising God after being beaten and thrown in prison, ministering to those around him regardless of the circumstances, even writing this scripture and others while he was in custody.

Remember, we have a God who wants only the best for us and we have a Lord who understands what we are going through, and we have a Holy Spirit which is with us in the midst of all of our troubles inspiring us to seek the best—we are not alone, praise God and be thankful!

The passage also remind me of what Jesus said in Matt. 6:25-34 plus the Greek word for anxious is the same in this passage also:

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?” …

…“And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?”…

“O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, …For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

The basic message in both of these passages is the same—live according to faith and not like the dominant culture. Praise God, seek His Kingdom, pray continually, remember to be thankful and  it will be well with you and yours for all eternity including the few years lived on this earth and in these chaotic times.

Believe me I know how difficult this may seem sometimes and I certainly am guilty of letting bad circumstances get to me and bring me down for a while. But with God everything is possible and when we let His Spirit to be more a part of our daily lives than it is increasingly fulfilled in us as we actually gain the mind of Christ and peace floods into our daily lives in spite of ourselves.

       (Image by freestone via Flickr)

Phil 4:4-7

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.  -ESV

One of the most important lessons that all of us need to realize as Christians is that our Lord is with us through it all–good and bad. He is there when we lose our job, he is there when we fight with our wife, he is there also when we respond to his Spirit and reach out to others around us.

He is there through thick and thin. He promised us that he would be with us to the very end of the age. We might be facing tough times right now, but if you take a time out and read what Jesus and his Apostles lived through, we probably aren’t facing circumstances quite as severe as they did–as least not those of us in America. Some Christians are and we may face similar trials in the future.

Remember Paul and Silas in prison singing? The Lord was with them that night. Peter- when the chains fell off?

It reminds me of the testimony of a modern day Christian pastor that I personally know who was thrown into a Cambodian prison during the ‘killing fields’ era when all Christians were rounded up and killed. As he waited for his execution and after he was beaten every day and left for dead in his cell he began to sing: “I have a river of life flowing out from me…”.

Eventually all those in cells around him were converted. They took him out of the prison since he seem to be causing so much touble among his fellow prisoners –put him in a hospital to bring him back to health so that they could tortured him some more and get him to reveal the identities of fellow Christians.

A East German (supposedly Communist) doctor who was actually a closet Christian helped him escape. He found his way to Southern California and pastored among the Cambodian community here until the Lord sent him back to re-establish the church in Cambodia (which is another story). The point is this Cambodia bother testifies that the Lord was with him in all of those situations and continues to be. A real lesson for us all.

The Lord is at hand and with us through it all. 

(Picture by adonis hunter / ahptical via Flickr)

Phil 4:4-7

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.  -ESV

In the ongoing culture around us the motto is- “looking out for number one”. In many ways Christians have been no different than anyone else. Put me in a car going down the freeway and most of the time it’s ‘do to others before they do to me’ –not exactly the Golden Rule that Jesus had in mind.

Even in churches, some of the meanest people I have ever had the misfortune of coming across have been supposed Christians sitting in the pews. Over the years when teaching classes I have occasionally been pulled into battles over minutia that didn’t amount to anything more important than a slight disagreement over eschatology followed by a severe tongue lashing. Anyone that has been posting on the internet for a while can attest to how ungracious fellow Christians can be sometimes.

It really is time for Christians to be different. For too long we have been pulled along with the culture—but this culture is no longer Christian and the prevailing values no longer reflect an underlining effort to do good. Actually increasingly what is ‘good’ according to the scriptures is now increasingly being called bad and what is evil is now starting to be considered good. In my lifetime I have lived long enough to see everything turned on its ear.

It is time for Christian to reflect a ‘Kingdom Culture’ which is increasingly at odds and different than the dominant culture around us in America and the Western world.

We may pray every day—”Let your Kingdom come let your will be done”—it is time for the Kingdom to become a reality in our everyday living. We should stand out as gentle, reasonable, and considerate folks letting our lights shine as beacons into the increasing darkness.

This doesn’t happen over night but only as we allow the Holy Spirit to come in and dwell with us as we do our daily tasks—going down the toll road, shopping in the store, and reaching out in kindness and civility to those working around us. As a beacon of light that will draw people to you and the Lord which should be reflected in our lives. Let the Holy Spirit’s light break through.  

(Picture via Wikipedia)

Phil 4:4-7

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.  -ESV

For many Christians the chaos that is going on around us in the economy and everyday living is closing in on them and robbing them of their joy and victory in Christ Jesus. With our harried lives of here there and everywhere it is sometime difficult to fit the Lord into our busy schedule—at least it is for me sometimes—and even harder to rejoice in the midst of it all.

Nevertheless, the counsel of these verses is very clear –we are to rejoice always in the midst of it all. You might say– ‘Well Michael- you don’t know what I am going through right now’—and that would be true but neither do you know what I am facing.

It is good for us to remember what Paul was facing when he penned these verses in the first place. He was under arrest facing the Roman Justice system. What ever we may be going through it has got to be better than that. The message transcends the centuries and the Holy Spirit confirms it in our very hearts:

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.

(To be continued)