The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my mind and heart in Philippians 4:9b,
Paul made this observation when he told his Philippian readers to engage in a certain practice. He said if they would think about certain kinds of things, reflect and ruminate on certain kinds of things, then the God of peace would be with them. What he described is as follows, "whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice." Philippians 4:8-9. I believe this observation of Paul is still operational today.
Those things that are truthful, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy are those which we should focus our thoughts on. What we are told to put into practice is what we have learned from Paul, received from Paul, heard from Paul and seen in Paul. We have plenty of material in the thirteen letters of Paul contained in our New Testaments, Romans through Philemon. We also have the accounts in the book of Acts, penned by a protege of Paul, Luke. We also have the gospel which bears Luke's name written from the perspective of one who spent much of his life with Paul.
I have to think that anyone of whom it could be said, "God is with him" must have an exceptional life. I suspect this isn't something that could be said of many, but Paul tells us how to make this happen. What we set our minds on and what we chose to do leads to this kind of an extraordinary life that is marked by God's presence and God's peace.
Paul puts it in very practical terms in Colossians 3. After pointing out the futility of being religious in Colossians 2:16-23, he says, "Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things." Colossians 3:1-2. He then paints a picture of a changing closet where he says to change out of the aspects of our old, sinful nature and put on the new. The old includes things like anger and lying. The new includes things like compassion, kindness, patience and love. Colossians 3:5-14.
Note the order of things laid out by Paul. First, set our minds on what is in heaven, on the Lord. This is where we find what is truthful, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy. This is what we see in Paul's life as one who knows the Lord, one whom we can say, "God is with him." It is only after the reflection, the rumination, the mulling, the meditation of these things with our hearts and minds focused on God himself that the activity in the changing closet can take place.
Then it can be said, "God is with them!"
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!
No comments:
Post a Comment