A NOTE FROM PASTOR MARGE
How can we rise above our circumstances, or, in other words, how can we truly be content when we are facing the challenges and difficulties of life? This is a question we’ve all asked ourselves at one point or another, isn’t it? Is it even really possible to be content when life seems to be beating us down? The apostle Paul in all 4 chapters in his letter to the church in Philippi has a lot to say about finding true contentment during the storms of life. Paul wrote the letter of Philippians from a prison cell most likely in Rome in about 62 AD. Paul tells us he was imprisoned for preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. Throughout Paul’s long ministry, he suffered greatly on many occasions. He was repeatedly whipped, beaten with rods, and hunted by assassins. Once he was even stoned and left for dead. He was imprisoned many times. So how can this man, who has had a life full of suffering and is enduring great amounts of pain and hardship in a prison cell in Rome, write these words in Philippians 4:11, “…for I have learned in whatever situation to be content.” What? How can you say that Paul? How can you be content when the circumstances surrounding you are so grim? From this amazing little epistle, we learn from the apostle Paul that contentment is not found in our circumstances but rather in the person of Jesus Christ. That we can indeed be truly content even when our lives seem to be falling apart because ultimate, true contentment comes from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That yes, we can be brought high, we can be blessed, we can be successful or we can have nothing, we can be beaten, and we can be thrown in prison. None of that really matters. What matters is that we have Jesus. That we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.
Marge
