God Can Help You Cope In Any Circumstance!

"Some people will change when they see the light. Others change only when they feel the heat."   -Traditional

What are the 5 most important things in your life? Take a minute, or two, and write them down on paper. It's important to be honest when you do this.

Now, don’t write what should be the most important in your life, but what has been the most important in your life, based on your priorities, and on how much you would grieve if you were to lose them. These items can be your child/children, wife, husband, house, career, anything. So, go ahead, take a minute or two, to do this.

I realize that there are many factors outside of our control. Marriage is an example where two people marry the best of each other. After the first year, or the first month in some cases, one or both individuals in the marriage may decide no longer to put their best forward. Or, the care of children and the demands of work competes with the effort needed to demonstrate love to one another.

There are other examples illustrating life situations that are less than ideal, that are disappointing, even crippling: The couples that desire to have their own children but cannot. The death of a husband leaves behind his wife to care for their young children. The woman whose abusive parents leaves her emotionally scarred. As a result bitterness, envy, selfish ambition and other wrong thoughts fill our minds and paralyze our lives. Satisfaction, fulfillment, peace and contentment in life and relationships appear to be out of reach.

In today's message, we will take a brief look at the Apostle Paul’s reason for contentment in life (even in a prison cell), and the process through which he gained this contentment. We won’t find instructions from Paul for coping with life in today's passage (Philippians 4:10-13), but we will observe a life that has coped well in every circumstance.

The Apostle Paul leaves his role as their pastor, and rejoices in their common friendship with Jesus Christ, their Lord. What this passage tell us is not so much instruction from Paul, as much as his voicing aloud his thoughts about his current condition in prison. For a time in prison, he received no help from other Christians, not even from the church he loved, the Philippi Community Christian Church.

Paul’s instruction, in this passage, we will simply affirm the realities of life. Sometimes, affirming reality is the best help for moving on with one’s life and toward contentment. Someone said, "Denial is not a river in Egypt, but a rut in which many choose to walk in life." Christians are not perfect; they are forgiven by God and given the truth, even the Holy Spirit, to guide us through life. Therefore, denial is not encouraged in the Christians life!

Before moving on, allow me to shed some light on what the Philippians had to deal with in their lives. Remember they lived under Greek and Roman religious and philosophical influence. As Paul spoke about his own contentment, he exposes the wrong value for contentment, and the wrong process for attaining contentment, that was often taught by Greek Stoic philosophers.

The Greek Stoic philosophers taught that one could attain contentment by denial of one’s needs. In other words, if your child dies, it’s okay, because your child is external to you and should not effect you. If your company goes bankrupt, it’s okay, because, after all, it’s only a business. If you have cancer, it’s okay; everyone dies eventually.

This form of contentment denies the God-given ability to feel and discern injustice and evil. This form of contentment denies the presence of the ideal. And this form of contentment denies the value of effort, and the value of human life, including self. In a nutshell, the Stoics value the ability to transcend the harshness of life.

Paul, on the other hand, gave the reason that one can be content because God is in charge. Paul also gave the process for attaining contentment, which involves experiencing, and seeing God’s faithfulness in times of need, and times of abundance.

But, even Paul experienced discouragement, as all of us must in this life. If you go back and read Philippians 2:25, you'll see that the Philippians finally had the opportunity to send Epaphroditus to take care of Paul’s needs. Yet, Paul faced great discouragement and great need prior to receiving Epaphroditus.

To lose contact with your church because you've moved away might cause you to wonder how deep the friendships were. But to lose contact with your church, when you've been their pastor, and now are unjustly imprisoned, will certainly cause you to wonder if your church ever cared about you; and if your church knew anything about love.

How do we handle the sense of discouragement when we see that our investment into significant relationships will not produce the intended result? You could be a teacher, a parent, a spouse, and find that all the time you've invested into your students, children or spouse have not made a difference in their lives, or improved your relationship with them. 

When this happens, where do we turn to find our sense of significance? The term, midlife crisis, describes an evaluation of a life possibly wasted up to that point and potentially meaningless in the future. So, what do we do?

Do we start over? Do we set new goals? Do we give up in bitterness? Do we keep on doing what we are doing, and lower our expectation for meaning and significance in life? Do we pick up a book on dealing with discouragement in the self-help section at a local bookstore? I wouldn't be surprised that Paul had some of these thoughts when he struggled with discouragement in his prison cell.

Additionally, Paul not only experienced discouragement, but he also experienced the contrast of abundance to that of having very little, as all of us must in this life. Paul knew what having plenty meant. He was a pure Jew, highly educated and a member of the Pharisees, the Jewish leaders of his time. 

Paul also had Roman citizenship, possibly because his Dad was given such citizenship for his contribution to the Roman Empire. Paul had prestige, power and money, but he gave all that up when he decided to follow Jesus Christ after his encounter on the road to Damascus.

Maybe having very little to live on does not describe you at this point, but it may describe some people in your life. They were doing very well in life, until an unexpected business failure, or perhaps an illness in the family put them in a financial crunch. The question here is, "Can we have peace and contentment when some of these realities are our realities?" I believe we can. 

Let's go back to the beginning of this message. Look at the five most important things you wrote down? If disaster occurred in your life, a fire, an earthquake, a break-in, an illness, or whatever else could take away or destroy four of the five things on your list; and you could choose which four you would lose, what would you be willing to lose? Cross these four items off your list now. 

If what's left on your list is not a personal relationship with God, you will lose that item also, because only a personal relationship with God lasts forever. Everything else that brings you joy will be taken from you at one point or another in life, and everything at death. Only a personal relationship with God will be ours forever.

Referring back to today's passage (Philippians 4:10-13), Paul had several resources as he made his journey toward contentment. He had a personal relationship with God. This was certain. He had an on-going relationship with his church. This was uncertain at times. And he was willing to go through the experience of discouragement and lack.

If we find contentment to be mind over matter, then contentment might be found through the willingness to experience or accept discouragement and lack. But the willingness to experience discouragement and lack does not bring heart-felt satisfaction and fulfillment in life, unless a personal relationship with God, the truth of His Word and the encouragement of His people are a part of your list of resources.

One final word to you. If your primary purpose in life is happiness, or having everything your way, you will never be content this side of Heaven. But if your primary purpose is what God’s word says, that is to glorify God with your life, then you can be content in whatever situation. Just as a painting and a sculpture glorify or give credit to their maker, so is our purpose to glorify or give credit to our Maker, God. Any other purpose will leave us without peace and contentment.

Scripture: Hebrews 13:8; Joshua 1:9; Deuteronomy 31:6; Ecclesiastes 3:1; Proverbs 18:15; Philippians 4:6-7; James 1:17

Prayer: Dear Father, please help me to find inner peace. Help me understand that no matter what may come my way you are always with me. Amen

God bless you all!

Heather