STAY THE COURSE

Stay the Course

"Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice." ~~

One portion of Scripture I seek to live life by is Philippians Chapter 4:4-8. In the beginning, I stuck to quoting verse 8 exclusively. I'd say the words over and over, letting them roll off my tongue so I could absorb them more deeply. And so they became more than letters and sounds to me, but life itself.

Over time, as life has kicked me around a bit, my meditation has grown to include verses 5-8. So much that I experience is helped by those Scriptures in which the apostle Paul encourages and exhorts us to stand fast in our faith. It is our faith that will enable us to stay the course.
"Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice." (I love this. The Lord knew that we were stubborn and rebellious, so just in case we didn't get it the first time, He had Paul write it twice.)

"Let your reasonableness be known to everyone." How? "The Lord is at hand." Paul goes further and exhorts us saying, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything (everything, everything) by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God."

The result is peace. "And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."

And then comes the benefit -the fruit if you will- of our laboring before the Lord in prayers, petition and thanksgiving.

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."

Paul then ends this portion by telling them to practice doing what they have learned, heard, seen and received in him. And once again he tells them and us that the result will be peace.

I don't know about you but I could sure use some peace, especially the kind that defies my ability to understand, namely God's peace.

So dear ones, let us together, rejoice, rejoice, pray, petition and give thanks to the Lord for WHO HE IS. Let's ask Him to fill us with more faith to believe and more strength to stay the course, so we can finish well the race we are in.

Stephanie