Philippians 4:4-7 NIV
“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Rejoice in the Lord Always
So, I looked up this word “rejoice” in the Interlinear on
Bible Hub. Yes, it means to express joy and to be glad, but it has a deeper
meaning, too. It means to delight in God’s grace, in his favor towards us who
believe on Jesus Christ, God the Son.
So, what is God’s grace to us? It is his kindness, his favor
toward us. It was expressed to us in Jesus Christ, God the Son, dying on a
cross to put our sins to death so that we could be delivered from our slavery
to sin via dying with him to sin and being raised with him to new life in him
(Rom 6:1-23).
His grace, though, is not free license to continue living in
sin, only now without guilt. That isn’t grace if it leaves you still in slavery
to sin.
For, God’s grace, which brings salvation, trains (instructs)
us to say “No!” to ungodliness and fleshly lusts and to live self-controlled,
upright, and godly lives while we wait for Christ’s return (Tit 2:11-14; cf. Eph
4:17-24).
So, if we are rejoicing in the Lord always, that means we
are always (continually) delighting in his grace. It means that we find great
joy and extreme satisfaction in our Lord and in his grace to us which frees us
from our slavery to sin and which empowers us to live righteously.
So, that also means that we delight (have great joy) in
being set free from our addiction to sin and in walking in his holiness and
righteousness. We find great pleasure in living to please our Lord in all that
we do, in submitting to his Lordship over our lives, and in walking in his
truth day by day.
Let Your Gentleness be Evident
Gentleness is not weakness. Jesus was gentle, but he wasn’t
weak. Gentleness is not compromise with the world or refusal to speak the truth
in love so as not to offend others. Gentleness is controlled strength. It is
reasonableness, fairness, and justice. It is honest and free from
self-interest.
So, being gentle towards others does not mean we will lie to
them so as not to hurt their feelings. Yet, it doesn’t mean we will be obtuse, either.
It doesn’t mean we are not sensitive to or considerate of other people’s
feelings. But it means we are honest, but with grace and kindness.
We can speak the truth in love to others without hitting
them over the head with a baseball bat, so to speak. We don’t have to be harsh,
but lack of harshness is never to be translated into watering down the truth of
the gospel to make it less offensive and more acceptable to others.
So, there is a balance here. There are times when we must
speak more forcefully, usually when it comes to false teachers and teachings
which are leading people astray, or when it comes to combatting the lies of the
enemy that he whispers to us or that he tells others.
But generally speaking, we should speak with grace, seasoned
with salt. Our message is not to be all sugary sweet, for that is not truth,
but it isn’t to be so harsh that it hurts the cause of Christ and is opposite
of loving others, either. Basically, if we follow Jesus’ example, we will do
well.
Do Not Be Anxious
We are not to be fearful or frightened about anything. This
is not to say that we won’t ever feel fear, for that is a natural human emotion
which God has given to us so that we will walk in the fear of the Lord, in
treating him with honor and respect, and so we will respect danger and avoid
it, if possible.
But we are not to be controlled by fear. We can feel the
fear and do what we need to do anyway with the courage and strength that God
gives to us. For example, Paul felt fear. He said that he came to the
Corinthians in weakness and with great fear and trembling, but that did not hinder
him from speaking the truth of the gospel of Christ nor lead him to compromise
the truth.
We can overcome fear in the strength of the Lord when we
refuse to give in to the emotion of fear and we choose to trust the Lord and to
walk by faith, instead. Fear is one of Satan’s biggest weapons he uses against us,
that and his lies he tells us, too. So, we need to put on our armor of God and
fight against those feelings of fear with the truth (Eph 6:10-20).
So, when we feel fear, we need to pray. We need to ask the
Lord if he is trying to warn us against something, for he may be doing that,
and the feeling of fear (caution) may be letting us know not to go a certain
direction. But that calls for much wisdom and discernment from the Lord.
When we pray, we need to ask the Lord where the feeling of
fear is coming from and then we need to deal with it accordingly. He may need
to do a healing work in our hearts and minds due to past hurts or past failures
or past abuses. Or we may be feeling fearful out of lack of trust in the Lord
and in his sovereignty over our lives. And so, we may need to trust him fully.
And we need to give our fears (anxieties) over to the Lord
in prayer, letting him do his work in our hearts and lives in changing us to be
more like him, thanking him for these opportunities to have him do his work in
our hearts. And every time we feel fear, we need to yield to the Lord’s
control.
When we give our fears over to God, and we learn to trust
him in all our circumstances, and we learn to trust in his complete
sovereignty, not just over our lives, but over everything which he has made,
then the peace comes. And that is because we are walking by faith and not by
sight.
So, in all of these things, whether we are learning to be
truly joyful and thankful always, or whether we are learning how to be gentle
while still speaking the truth in love, or whether we are learning to overcome
our fears in the strength of the Lord, we must follow our Lord in surrender to
his will, and we must do what he says. And then we can live in perfect peace.
Seek
the Lord
An
Original Work / July 20, 2012
Based
off Isaiah 55
“Come to Me all you who thirst; come to waters.
Listen to Me, and eat what’s good today,
And your soul will delight in richest of fare.
Give ear to Me, and you will live.
I have made an eternal covenant with you.
Wash in the blood of the Lamb.”
Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him.
Let the wicked forsake his way, in truth.
Let him turn to the Lord, and he will receive mercy.
Freely, God pardons him.
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,”
declares the Lord, our God.
“My word that goes out of My mouth is truthful.
It will not return to Me unfulfilled.
My word will accomplish all that I desire,
And achieve the goal I intend.
You will go in joy, and be led forth in peace.
The mountains will burst into song… before you,
And all of the trees clap their hands.”
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