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| Philippians Chapter 4 (Please Click here to read the passage) When Paul wrote his letter to the Philippians he was in prison. The Church at Philippi had been very supportive of Paul and was the first Church that he had established on European soil. Although there had not been a great deal of trouble amongst the Christians here, we see that Paul was very disturbed about some of the Christians who were quarrelling with each other. Euodia and Syntyche were two such people although they were by no means the only ones. Paul was desperately urging them to cease all the arguments and to begin to take care of and show love towards each other and to act more Christianly towards each other and to show an example for others to see. He was trying to encourage them to look out for each other and to help each other in whatever way was needed. In an ideal world it would be nice to think that we could all learn to behave more Christlike in our attitude and in our words and thoughts even today as it is so important that we do show love, (one of the most important commandments) to each other whether it be our family, neighbours or our friends. There should be no room in our Christian lives for animosity towards each other and we should really make the effort in this respect. When we accept Christ into our hearts and lives we are professing that we want to be more Christlike in the way we talk, act or think and we know for a fact that Christ was always willing to show both love and compassion to those that came to him. By ourselves it will be impossible to achieve this but with the help of and our obedience to the Holy Spirit we are able to change the way we think and act. As much as we do really try we sometimes or I should say quite often fall short of these expectations. Fortunately God knows that this is not an easy task for us and has found a solution in the death of His son Jesus Christ who died in order that we could be forgiven of our sins and rose again in order that we too when the time comes will be raised up to be with Him eternally. All we have to do is accept Jesus into our hearts and believe he died and rose again on the third day and that he is now at the right hand of God preparing a place for us. Regardless of our circumstances we can have joy and rejoice in the Lord whether or not we are feeling happy for it is when you feel so deeply content in belonging to Christ and being at one with Him that we can feel the true joy of having Him as our Saviour and to know that by the grace of God we will receive salvation from our sins. Paul was a very good example of how a Christian should live and his own life was as a lesson to all of us that our inner thoughts do not necessarily cohabit with our outer circumstances. Paul knew that Christ was with him no matter what happened to him and it was that thought that kept him strong in his faith. It can be all too easy for us to be discouraged at times throughout our Christian life and this is when we must learn to hand over to Christ and let him lead us back to the safety of his loving arms. It is by putting the same trust and faith in God that Paul did that we too will overcome all our trials. It is also necessary that we show love and kindness to, not only those within our Christian fellowship, but to those outside the Church as well. Paul appears to have found the solution of never being anxious. He says we should not worry but that we should turn these worries over to God in prayer if we want to experience the peace of God. So what is God's peace - for one thing it cannot be compared to world peace and we can only know God's peace when we allow him to be in control of our lives and he will protect our hearts from all anxiety if we will only let him. It is so true that what goes into our mind, whether through television, books, conversations or magazines, will determine what comes out in our words and actions. It is important to seek God's help through prayer in focusing our minds on what is good. If we really want the peace of God we must put the Word of God into practice in our lives. Just reading the bible will not bring us the salvation we need, we also need to be obedient to God's Word in our every day lives. We see in the later verses of this chapter that Paul had learnt to be content whatever the circumstances, whether good or bad, whether he had plenty or whether he was in need and that this contentment came purely through his trust in God and the subsequent strength he received from God . Just like Paul we too can face any situation providing we feed on the strength of God. Although Paul had stressed on many occasions that Churches should support each other he did feel the need to stress that he didn't like accepting gifts from other Churches and that he didn't want the wrong impression created and people thinking that he was preaching in order to receive money. He did, however, accept a gift from the Philippian Church but in this instance it was not so much the gift but their love and devotion that he appreciated. Finally providing we allow ourselves we can trust God to supply all our needs but we must bear in mind that there is likely to be quite a difference in what we may think we want and what God feels our actual needs are. We have to remember that God has known us right from before our birth and that as our loving Father he does know what is best for us in this world and wants to ensure that we have all that we essentially need to help us in our spiritual growth. Till next month Chris |