The Place to Be #57

 

Philippians 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Paul finally gets to what he has building toward in the whole letter: he wants them (and us) to know the Joy of the Lord.  In order to do so, he calls on us to remove any barrier which restricts the flow of joy. In verses 1-3 it was the disagreements and divisions within the local Body of Christ.  Here it is the anxieties and ingratitude that often fill our hearts, individually and corporately.  The list of "What ifs" in this life is endless. We let our minds run away with us. We forget that "The Lord is at hand."  We make prayer a last resort rather than our first line of defense. We fail to give thanks to God for everything good, which serves as a reminder to ourselves of how great and good He is.  We rob ourselves, and our churches, of the peace of God and the Joy of Christ which accompanies it.  May we take our anxieties head on and live with joy.