The Book of Philippians: My De-stressor (December 3, 2008)

I have sooooo much to be thankful for. A family I adore. Amazing friends who have literally become extended family. My health and other Maslow's hierarchical type needs are being met. An enormous capacity to love others. Great church. Great boss. And to top it all off: I live in a country where being a Christian isn't illegal. Some of my brothers and sisters around the world live on smuggled Bibles and meet underground. Some are imprisoned. Some are killed just for professing Jesus Christ. I actually have a friend on-line who risks his life just to smuggle Bibles into a certain country every day. Yes martyrs still exist 2000 years later. Look it up (and these are only the ones who disappeared that were reported). http://www.prisoneralert.com/vompw_persecution.htm

So if I am so grateful why is there a knot in my stomach and tension in my neck?

I am working on being content in all things because the stress of the end of the semester, the holidays, and busyness tend to take their toll sometimes. I want to retreat and disappear. I want to throw my phone into the sea, pack it all in, and run away to the mountains to live like Thoreau on Walden Pond.

But then I remember what I am here for and I just look for a way to survive the next wave of anxiety ridden schedules and lists.

In the midst of all this when I focus on Jesus Christ I "get it". He doesn't just merely want me to hang on for dear life. He wants me to thrive...even in the chaos. He wants me to keep my eyes forward and complete the race. There is a reason the Word of God says "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God". Phil 4:6 He actually wants to help me get there. To set me up for success not failure. And to teach me choice, balance, and relentless love.

Just as I was sharing with my friend tonight I want so badly to have Paul's attitude in Philippians 4: 11-13

Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.

Or as The Message version so plainly puts it:

"Actually, I don't have a sense of needing anything personally. I've learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I'm just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I've found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am".

You want perspective on this verse? Paul wrote these verses even though he had himself been arrested many times, imprisoned (in fact he was in prison in Rome when he penned this) , beaten, gone hungry, and been stoned. He had gone from being a respected pillar of affluent society and dispenser of Pharasitical Law to being a hated Christian because he had an amazing experience with Christ that changed his life. He went from persecutor or Christians to a persecuted Christian himself. And yet he still wrote these words. He learned to be ok no matter what the circumstances not based on his own power but on God.

So...as I go to bed early to get up and finish a dreaded paper with deadlines and craziness all about me...I strive for contentment because I am blessed beyond what the world can measure.

"This world has nothing for me"

"See how the apostle would bid us throw anxiety to the winds; let us try to do so. You cannot turn one hair white or black, fret as you may. You cannot add a cubit to your stature, be you as anxious as you please. It will be for your own advantage, and it will be for God's glory for you to shake off the anxieties which else might overshadow your spirit. Be anxious about nothing, but prayerful about everything, and be thankful about everything as well. Is not that a beautiful trait in Paul's character? He is a prison at Rome, and likely soon to die; yet he mingles thanksgiving with his supplication, and asks others to do the same. We have always something for which to thank God, therefore let us also obey the apostolic injunction".
Charles Spurgeon