Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:4-7
This Reflection will cover some of the points I made in ‘Paul’s Rejoicing’ that I posted last year on 14 November but I think the repetition is a useful reminder as we come towards the end of this series on contentment.
Studying this letter to the Christians at Philippi, I’ve been repeatedly amazed by the scope and security of Paul’s confidence in God. He could rejoice at the preaching of the Gospel by insincere Christians wanting only to make life more difficult for him in prison; he could rejoice at being ‘poured out as a drink offering’ in his ministry for people who were deserting him. He told his readers to rejoice in the Lord, to rejoice always. He was able to do this because he kept his eye on the big picture, the great things that God was and still is doing. I don’t think that Paul’s profound contentment is possible without this quality of rejoicing.
Although we're to rejoice in all situations, we’re not to rejoice over sin except as God can use it for a good end. The Jewish leaders sinned when they arrested Jesus and petitioned the Roman authorities to execute Him, Pilate sinned when condemned Jesus, the soldiers sinned when they flogged Him, mocked Him and nailed Him to a cross. But the crucifixion was pivotal in the redemption of all Creation and for 2,000 years Christians have rejoiced over it. But God isn’t someone who focuses on the big picture but overlooks the details. As Jesus told His disciples, ‘Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows’ (Matthew 10:29-31).
Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil and to redeem the whole of creation from the devastation caused by sin and He’s able and willing to redeem anything that can happen to us. It's in this confidence that we rejoice!
By prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, we can make our requests known to God. The phrase ‘prayer and supplication’ is a way of saying different kinds of prayer, including worship and praise as well as requests. The requests we make should be consistent with how Jesus taught us to pray in the Sermon on the Mount, in what we often call 'The Lord's Prayer' (see Matthew 6:9-13). When we pray for the coming of God's Kingdom, it must be with the recognition that if we want to see His will done on earth as it is in Heaven and we must do our bit. When we ask for provisions, such as our ‘daily bread’, it must be with the thankful assurance that He already knows what we need for this life. When we ask for forgiveness, it must be with a determination to forgive those who've wronged us. When we ask for deliverance from temptation and evil, it must be in the confidence that God wants to deliver all His people from evil. Sometimes He will guide us to avoid the temptation and evil, sometimes He will guide us through it, but in all our praying we must keep in mind that God is our Father and we are to be like Him.
When we fail in this, however, when we become anxious and unreasonable, we should also remember that God remains faithful to us. He'll help us to recover our confidence in Him because that’s the sort of God He is. And His peace, the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
© Copyright Philip Evans 2015.
What is freely received should be freely shared and not sold for profit, so please feel free to copy these Reflections freely and without cost to others. Unless otherwise stated, Scripture quotations in these Reflections are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
