The Lord is Near

Wednesday, March 23, 2011, 7:31 a.m. – I woke this morning with the song “All of Me” going through my mind again. Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Philippians 4:2-9:

Exhortations
2 I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to agree with each other in the Lord. 3 Yes, and I ask you, loyal yokefellow, help these women who have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.

4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

My Understanding: As I prayerfully read through this passage of scripture this morning, the words “The Lord is Near” stood out to me as the basis or the foundation for the exhortations listed in these verses in Philippians 4. As I considered that idea prayerfully before the Lord, he brought the following verses to mind: 2 Peter 3:10-13 says:

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.

Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.

And, this passage in Philippians 4 gives us some insight into how we can live holy and godly lives as we look forward to our Lord’s soon return:

Agree with each other in the Lord

This goes back to the second chapter of Philippians, I believe, where we are told:

If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.

Rejoice in the Lord always

I think that people with naturally bubbly personalities might have an easier time with this, but for those of us who are thinkers, not that bubblies are not thinkers, but for those of us with, perhaps, more serious personalities that are often in deep and contemplative thought, I think we have to consciously become more aware that, even though we may be smiling on the inside, and we may be at peace with God and are sharing daily in his joy, we need to consciously and willfully make it a practice of our lives to rejoice always and to let that rejoicing be evident to all. Some of this is attitude and some of this comes with just being aware of ourselves and our emotional natures so that we can put this into practice daily.

Let your gentleness be evident to all

Gentle means “having a mild and kind nature or manner; not severe; using little force or violence; having a gracious and honorable manner; tender; temperate – self-controlled, reasonable, measured, restrained, reserved; and peaceful (Encarta Dict. & Thes.).

Do not be anxious about anything

Other terms for “anxious” are worried and fearful. The Bible has much to say on those subjects. The words “Do not fear” appear so many times in scripture that it is hard to count the number of times. We must naturally be a very fearful people. Jesus told the people not to worry about their lives – what they would eat, drink or wear. He also said that we should not worry about the future (ref: Matt 6). He also said we should not worry about what to say when we are arrested or whenever we are brought before those in leadership to have to give an account for what we do or teach, for he will give us words to say. I believe this applies in every situation, not just when we are arrested for our faith in Christ (ref: Matt 10: Luke 12:11), especially since most of us in the US have not had to face that yet. Worry and fear are the opposite of faith and fear is one of the biggest tools Satan uses against us to try to keep us from believing God and serving him. The only kind of fear we should have is the awe, reverence and respect due Almighty God. I John 4:18 says:

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

In everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving…

Present your requests to God. Instead of worry, fretting and fearing life or life’s circumstances or what we are supposed to do or say, et al, we are to take everything to the Lord in prayer and to lay our requests and concerns at his feet and allow him to work miracles in our daily lives. Worry never produces anything good. It only hurts us and it hurts our faith. We are supposed to cast all our care on Jesus because he cares for us. We should be specific in our prayers, we should make sure we are praying according to God’s will (we learn this through knowing God and his Word), and we should be thankful in our prayers. I think sometimes we pray in fear and not in faith, but when we pray in faith, we are thanking God in advance for what we believe he is going to do in answer to our prayers.

Think on these things

This verse (v. 8) is a very significant verse. When we truly understand its meaning and we apply its principles to our daily lives, it is revolutionary in transforming our lives to becoming more and more like Jesus.

My husband and I recently (over 2 years ago) felt led of the Lord to use this verse as a guide in determining what we should watch in the way of TV, movies, et al. When we got serious about examining what we take into our minds on a daily basis against this passage of scripture, we found that there wasn’t much in the way of TV or movies that didn’t conflict with these principles in this verse. We found that even children’s movies and old movies that we thought were “safe” had messages in them that glorified sin and rebellion, that made heroes of rebels, thieves, liars, etc., that made light of or took a casual approach to sexual sin and adultery, that got us to laugh at sin, as though it was entertainment, that valued mockery, making fun of people, mistreating people who were different from us, and that, in general, had subliminal messages that stood in stark contrast to this verse.

So, we ended up getting rid of our TV, which has been a wonderful blessing to our lives, and we discarded nearly all our movies, which has been another blessing. Now we read Christian books together, we read the Bible together, pray together, and we play Scrabble or other games, or we just talk with each other to where we are enjoying each other now instead of just blobbing in front of a TV screen and taking into our minds the things of this world. What we take into our minds daily affects who we are, what we think, how we believe, how we behave and ultimately who we become. We need to guard what goes into our minds so that we can think on what is true, right, lovely, noble, pure, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy. You know the saying, “Garbage in, garbage out.” If we want to think the right things, we need to be filling our minds with the right things, mainly with God and his word.

Whatever you have learned from God and his word, put it into practice

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does (James 1:22-25 NIV).

It is not enough to just read the word, we need to study it and to learn what it says. And, it is not enough to just read and study the word, but we need to put it into practice into our daily lives. The saying, “Use it or lose it,” definitely applies here. When the Lord Jesus teaches us something through his word, we should not walk away and just forget what he said. We should make a plan to implement what we just learned into our daily lives. I often find that the Lord gives us such opportunities, as I cannot tell you the number of times he has taught me something and tested me in it the same day to see if what I learned was learned in my head only or was learned in my heart and applied to my life. I have often said “OH” when I realized what was happening and how I had just learned about that truth that morning, understanding that the Lord was checking to see if I really got it. So, we should not just take the word into our minds, but it should sink into our hearts and it should be lived out in practice in our daily lives, for that is its purpose – to change lives and to conform us into the image of Christ so that we can live lives pleasing to God and useful for his purposes in ministering to the lives of others for the praise and honor and glory of God.

All of Me / Selah

Take my life and make it Yours, Lord
Fill me with Your love
You are all I need
I surrender all of me

All of Me - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZR8Y19qffM