This morning I started reading Paul's letter to the Church in Philippi, and as always, I found myself encouraged by Paul's words. I started in chapter 3 and then moved onto chapter 4, where I was focused on the following verses - Philippians 4:4-9 NIV:
[4] "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! [5] Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. [6] Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. [7] And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."
[8] "Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable---if anything is excellent or praiseworthy---think about such things. [9] Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me---put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you."
I am familiar enough with these verses that I am tempted to just blow through them, and not really stop and think about them in depth. I find it most helpful to stop after each sentence and let the words resonate in my mind and heart, rolling it back and forth as if examining them carefully, trying to understand the context in which Paul wrote them, the perspective of the audience, and their situation. All of these things bring about a richness to the word and to my understanding of it.
Take for example verse 4, "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it AGAIN: Rejoice!" My mind immediately goes back to a song we used to sing, and also to my Dad, using this phrase to encourage us, usually when we didn't want to be encouraged. :-) Paul felt this encouragement was so important, and so did the Holy Spirit that he repeated it, focusing significant direction towards that simple phrase. Why "Rejoice in the Lord, always"?
My first thought is that by rejoicing in the Lord always, we are constantly turning our mind and heart to Him. The image of two guys watching a football game together, turning towards each other and high-fiving for every good play, pops into my mind. That is rejoicing with someone, and if we take it to the extreme that Paul writes about, we should be turning to the Lord in every circumstance. As we do this, it gives us the ability to hear His Words, to see His expression, if you will. This simple act reminds us who we are with, and who we are doing life with. If we add to this the idea of the Lord having all power, all authority and working all things together for our sake, out of His goodness, we have reason to rejoice!
Secondly, the words we have translated "always" is the Greek word pantote. Strong's definition is that this means "every when". I like that phrase for it is just different enough to grab my attention. Every when, rejoice in the Lord! This is the real challenge. When your pipes burst; when you discover you or someone you love has cancer; when your car won't start; when you can't pay a bill; when something you really wanted to happen doesn't; when you are tired, rejected, alone, afraid, upset! Every when! When confronted with these types of whens, our natural inclination is to complain rather than rejoice. We want to lay blame, judge, all sorts of things, but the encouragement from the Lord is to rejoice!
When we turn to the Lord, we allow ourselves an opportunity to remember all the good things we have seen, all we have been blessed with, and to put our present circumstances in their proper context. We know whose we are, who we are doing life with, and we know the goodness of the Lord. We remind ourselves of His faithfulness, His love, His care for us, and His invitation to press into Him. We provide ourselves the opportunity for the Lord to encourage us, to cheer us on, to express His love for us!
As I was writing this, I was thinking of a friend who recently has run a couple of ultra-marathons, running long distances through difficult terrain. I thought about his family cheering Him on! I thought about how encouraging it would be to hear their voices, to see them cheering! Now imagine he could experience that every 10 steps! That is the image I have of rejoicing in the Lord in every when!
When we do this simple step, we enable our mind to fix itself on the Lord, rather than on our circumstances! When we take this step we also are given an opportunity to stand in faith, to stand on God's word and promise, to believe Him over our circumstances. As we rejoice in every when, we are speaking life into our situation, allowing joy to replace disappointment, faith to replace fear, love to replace judgment! Taking this radical approach is not easy, and works best in a group of like minded people, otherwise our friends and well-meaning family will try to talk us out of our rejoicing. It is difficult to rejoice in every when if we are surrounded by "Debbie Downers".
Moving on briefly, if we look at a few of the next sentences, we see Paul expanding the encouragement, telling us to not be anxious, but to submit everything to the Lord, effectively handing Him our burdens so we can rejoice! Paul continues on and encourages us to purposely change the way we think, focusing on "whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable---if anything is excellent or praiseworthy"! Taking control of our thought life, and directing our thoughts towards these positive things will certainly help us to rejoice in every when!
This morning, I am just plain encouraged! I see in Paul's words, a plan of attack for my thought life that will have a positive impact in my life! I see a set of practical things I can do, if I can remember, that will help me raise my gaze and see Him! I am encouraged to take the opportunities around me, then "Whens" and turn them into times of rejoicing!
Amen and Amen!
No comments:
Post a Comment