Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things, but our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
Therefore, my brothers, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, that is how you should stand firm in the Lord, dear friends! Philippians 3:17-4:1 (NIV)
I do not subscribe to a newspaper. I do not buy a daily newspaper. I do not watch the news on television. My husband does. It is part of the ministry to which he is called to communicate in the ‘blog-o-sphere’ about current events. Many well known, national news paper say they are a voice of reason…Henry really is! There is SO MUCH information being said…again, again, and again. We are flooded with people telling us what is going on (from their point of view), what it all means, and what is coming. It is not just the secular media that is talking. If you turn to Christian stations or subscribe to Christian magazines or blogs, there is the same flood. I no longer feel I am being informed…I feel I am under attack!
I am aware that there were no newspapers or television commentators in the first century. But they did have ways of communicating and certainly the local governments communicated their opinions and laws effectively! I imagine the town gate and marketplace was a hive of information as well as rumors about what was going on throughout the region and known world. Not Paul, not Jesus, or any of the gospel writers tell us to focus on what is said ‘out there’. Instead they tell us to keep our hearts and minds set on things of God.
This is not being naive or stupid! This is living my faith! It is putting my money and every other bit of my life where I profess my faith to be! It is relying on God first and believing God for His wisdom and provision. It is believing God for His timing and His plan.
If you are feeling overwhelmed and/or worried, thinking that the glass of your life is always half-empty with all that ‘is not‘ in your life, join me in answering Paul’s challenge to “stand firm in the Lordâ€. How do we do that? One tiny step and thought at a time! It is training our minds to be set on Jesus. It is filling the spaces with all that is true and noble, as Paul says later in chapter 4. It is not the legalism of the doing some check list that will make me holier but it is pressing in closer to God and stepping away from what is not working for me and saying, “God, I have tried it my way. It is not working for me! I am opening my hand to release what I am still holding on with my fist and I am going to let God just be God! I am going to look up!â€
Let us believe in the Living God and rejoice each day that we are His precious children. Let us soak ourselves in God News so that we may LIVE our life in Truth and Victory!
