The slightly sarcastic saying goes, “I can do all things- through a verse taken out of context.” We Christians love slogans especially verses that give us that extra boost to keep going when life gets hard. Philippians 4:13 is one of those.
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” NKJ
While there are many encouraging promises in Scripture of strength to overcome adversity, I think this passage, when read in context, is pointing a different direction. I belong to a church that still does around the table Bible Study’s on Wednesday evening. It is one of my favorite things we do. Last week we were looking at this passage.
Paul had been commending the Philippian church for their recent gift to help provide for him in prison. Then he says the following:
“Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. 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. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”
What Paul is saying is that he can be CONTENT in whatever situation- because Christ gives him strength.
He can be brought low- because Christ gives him strength.
He can abound- because Christ gives him strength.
He can have plenty and abundance- because Christ gives him strength.
He can endure hunger and need- because Christ gives him strength.
The strength that Christ gives him is that his life circumstances don’t matter!
Now in case you are like me and are feeling you can never reach this level of faith, remember Paul says that he has LEARNED this level of trust. A lifetime of holding tenaciously to the nail-scarred hand that had knocked him off his horse as a pompous young Pharisee had taught him strength is found in Christ alone!
In Christ alone, my hope is found He is my light, my strength, my song This Cornerstone, this solid ground Firm through the fiercest drought and storm What heights of love, what depths of peace When fears are stilled, when strivings cease My Comforter, my All in All Here in the love of Christ I stand.
Here we are, facing a new year…but already, rather than feeling we are on the brink of a new and exciting future, most of us are dreading, even fearful, what this week or this year may bring. How can we find the courage to go forward into this year?
Paul wrote to the Philippians in 3:12-14 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own- But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
“I’ll get there, if I leave everything but my bones behind,” said Sam. “And I’ll carry Mr. Frodo up myself, if it breaks my back and heart.”
That is pressing on!
Or little Reepicheep from C.S. Lewis Voyage of the Dawn Treader:
“My own plans are made. While I can, I sail east in the Dawn Treader. When she fails me, I paddle east in my coracle. When she sinks, I shall swim east with my four paws. And when I can swim no longer, if I have not reached Aslan’s country, or shot over the edge of the world into some vast cataract, I shall sink with my nose to the sunrise.”
Even Lewis himself kept his eyes on the goal:
“The Christian says, ‘Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists…If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing…I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that country and to help others to do the same.”
The early church father Augustine expressed a similar sentiment:
“I look forward, not to what lies ahead of me in this life and will surely pass away, but to my eternal goal. I am intent upon this one purpose, not distracted by other aims, and with this goal in view, I press on, eager for the prize, God’s heavenly summons. Then I shall listen to the sound of Your praises and gaze at Your beauty ever-present, never future, never past. But now my years are but sighs. You, O Lord, are my only solace. You, my Father, are eternal. But I am divided between time gone by and time to come, and its course is a mystery to me. My thoughts, the intimate life of my soul, are torn this way and that in the havoc of change. And so it will be until I am purified and melted by the fire of Your love and fused into one with You.”
So how do we, in a world reeling from a pandemic, divided by politics, increasingly deceptive and violent-
“press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus,”
“make it the main object of life to press on to that country and to help others to do the same,”
(Stay) “intent upon this one purpose, not distracted by other aims, and with this goal in view, I press on, eager for the prize, God’s heavenly summons?”
There is only one way- Hebrews 12: 1-2, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”
LOOKING TO JESUS!
Not to any human leader, cause, political party, ideology!
He is the ultimate example of pressing on- He endured through all the hate, hurt, pain, and even death until He WON and was seated at the right hand of God. He did not overcome by trying to overthrow- He overcame by laying down His life.
Our instructions for 2021 have not changed. Jesus said, “A new commandment I give to you that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” John 13:34
1 John 3:16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
We have one job in this new year- to love like Jesus.
First, I heard of Mrs. Iva Dell’s
passing and then of her dear friend Mrs. Raye Miles. I have to confess that the
first thought that crossed my mind was that Iva Dell had beat Mrs. Raye getting
home! They were such sweet close friends I could easily imagine there was a “see
you soon” pact between them.
Mrs. Ray Miles was one of my heroes. I don’t say that lightly. She is what I want to be when I grow up! Not just because she lived to 102 years old. She was a strong, gentle woman who was made of steel. The word “fierce” is thrown around these days as an accolade that somehow women should aspire to attain. When one met Mrs. Raye, fierce would have been the last word to come to mind.
But she fiercely loved her God and
her family! I tried to remember if I have EVER had a conversation with her that
did not include a prayer request for someone in her family. She carried them
all on her heart. If someone from her family chooses to go down the wrong road,
they will have to climb over her prayers to get there. Those prayers have built
a wall of protection around them that only heaven will reveal.
But what now? How in the world do you go on when the umbrella of prayer that has protected you is removed? In My Utmost for His Highest Oswald Chambers writes about this as follows:
It is not wrong
for you to depend on your “Elijah” for as long as God gives him to you. But
remember that the time will come when he must leave and will no longer be your
guide and your leader, because God does not intend for him to stay. Even the
thought of that causes you to say, ‘I cannot continue without my ‘Elijah.’ Yet
God says you must continue.
Alone at Your
“Jordan” (2
Kings 2:14). The Jordan River represents the type of separation where you
have no fellowship with anyone else, and where no one else can take your
responsibility from you. You now have to put to the test what you learned when
you were with your “Elijah.” You have been to the Jordan over and over again
with Elijah, but now you are facing it alone. There is no use in saying that
you cannot go— the experience is here, and you must go. If you truly want to
know whether or not God is the God your faith believes Him to be, then go
through your “Jordan” alone.
Alone at Your
“Jericho” (2 Kings 2:15).
Jericho represents the place where you have seen your “Elijah” do great things.
Yet when you come alone to your “Jericho,” you have a strong reluctance to take
the initiative and trust in God, wanting, instead, for someone else to take it
for you. But if you remain true to what you learned while with your “Elijah,”
you will receive a sign, as Elisha did, that God is with you.
Alone at Your
“Bethel” (2
Kings 2:23). At your “Bethel” you will find yourself at your wits’ end but
at the beginning of God’s wisdom. When you come to your wits’ end and feel
inclined to panic— don’t! Stand true to God and He will bring out His truth in
a way that will make your life an expression of worship. Put into practice what
you learned while with your “Elijah”— use his mantle and pray (see 2 Kings
2:13-14). Make a determination to trust in God, and do not even look for
Elijah anymore.
God help us- as we lose the saints in our lives it is not time to despair! It is time to snatch up their coats before they hit the ground and begin to do the work ourselves!
To live with a single-hearted
devotion to God that never wavers no matter what life throws at us.
To know Him as the one who never
fails.
To walk with Him daily, moment by
moment, knowing He is with us and we are not alone.
To love our family and friends fiercely-
always believing in the best that each one could be.
To carry our loved ones in prayer for
their protection, for their salvation, for their direction into a life of fully
following God.
To stick with and love the family
of God no matter their faults and failings.
The God of Iva Dell Ferrell and
Raye Miles is the same yesterday, today and forever. We may not have the friendship
with God that they knew, but we can begin today. When Elisha picked up Elijah’s
cloak and walked up to that Jordan River, he had no idea that God would do even
more through him than he had done through his mentor. Let’s see what He can do
through us!
