Phil. 4:13 NRSV
“I can do all things through him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13)
Paul appealed to the people a way of achieving contentment as they would have understood Stoic and Cynic doctrine that regarded contentment as the essence of all virtues. Contentment was the cultivated attitude of a wise person who had become independent of all things, and all people, relying on self alone because of his or her resources or of what was given by the gods. The Stoics saw Socrates as the prime example of one who had achieved this self-sufficiency, this contentment because of his own resources.
But Paul’s contentment was a different kind, the source of his contentment was not himself but from God through Christ. Can you see how that place of contentment would mean so much more as it not from what we have, or what we do, or what we can do, but from God, because of who we are in Christ? That’s a peace that passes all understanding.
We have to get to the core of our being. God is where our strength comes from. Our story is wrapped up in God’s story. That is our core, that’s our being, that’s where our strength comes from. And that is how we must view everything- from being wrapped up in God. It is there that we can recognize God’s truth and receive God’s peace.
Listen when my grandson Trey was small in my son Marq’s arms, my dog Tuesday came into the kitchen where we were talking. Trey immediately leaned down to follow Tuesday and I panicked. My kitchen floor was stone and if that baby fell, he would be hurt.
But Marq had such a grip, and he said “Nette, I got him.” I still think about that. And I started to watch children in their parents’ arms. You see, many will they will grab an arm if they are trying to see something. But Trey didn’t do that. He just leaned over to watch Tuesday. He had no fear.
It’s that same place of no fear that we need. We need to be so comfortable with that we have no fear because God has us. That lack of fear enables us to explore, to see differently through him, we not only have no fear, but have a strength from him.
It’s in that place that we recognize the power of ‘now’, of being in the present moment with God.
We must get still in order get to that space- in the present moment. We slow down to get on his time which is God time and it moves so much differently from than our time. God operates is Kairos time, his divinely appointed time. We are bound by Chronos time.
Our slow down is not for him to catch up. Our slow down is our ‘wait’ on him. It is out of that moment that we have peace, that contentment from him. And then we are, we can, we will, all because of his strength. more later.
