"I Can Do All Things...." [But how?]

[Jayne]

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" out of Philippians 4 is a verse common to all of us - probably for years.

It surely is a good thing to put those familiar verse in context.  Philippians 4 in its entirety is an AWESOME passage: so full of insight, encouragement, and enlightenment.

Well....that verse comes towards the end of that chapter.

• First, Paul speaks about contentment that he has learned.  He speaks of this while in prison and after being stoned and left for dead, imprisoned before, beaten to the point of death, shipwrecked and so much more.  HOW could he talk of contentment here?
• He talked about the peace of God first.  There is no contentment without the peace of God and there is NO worldly thing that can bring about the peace of God - NOTHING. 
• Then - what brings the peace of God that he talks about before he talks about contentment?  Four things:  (1.) Rejoice.   (2.)  Prayer.   (3.)  Meditating  (4.)  Practicing what you have learned - spiritually speaking. 

There is a flow chart, so to speak, before he gets to "I can do all things....." in chapter 4.

FIRST:  Rejoice - in my mind, be grateful.

SECOND:  Pray.  Not a short, over-in-5-seconds prayer, but go into your prayer closet as Christ speaks about to in Matthew's gospel.  Yes, sometimes a brief prayer can work, is necessary, and is all you have time for. BUT the daily prayer closet is essential.

THIRD:  Meditate on good things (like the Word of God).  To do that we must first READ the Word of God.  Daily and coupled with prayer.

FOURTH:  Practice what you have learned via prayer and Bible reading and preaching and being grateful.  You can't practice what you have not studied first!

FIFTH:  THEN the peace of God that passes all understanding will "be with you".

SIXTH:  THEN you will have learned to be "content in all things" - ALL things.

Now we are "strengthened" and ready for service!

How in the "sam hill" do we think that Christ is going to "strengthen us" to do "all things" if we are not doing the first things it says in that chapter: living with joy and gratitude, praying with the effort it says to, filling our minds with the Word of God, putting into practice what we learn by prayer and Bible study, living in the peace of God, AND exercising contentment in the bad times.

These things are HOW he strengthens us, brothers and sisters. We don't namby-pamby and in a spiritually juvenile manner waltz through life expecting Christ to follow behind us like a slave and to pick up the pieces of our messes that we make when we forego and neglect these things or doing the work for us?

That's not strengthening someone - that's enabling someone.

Christ isn't our enabler. He wants to strengthen us.

Philippians chapter 4 is our recipe for that.

I know that I am "preaching to the choir" so to speak - but even the "choir" needs the message, too.  Have a blessed day.