Remember Who You Are, In Jesus,

And Don’t Let This Toxic Culture Label You!

If you listen to any news outlet today, any pundit, any college professor or teacher, any politician, or even many pastors today, you will be hopelessly labeled by some real or perceived brokenness in your life! Today’s favorite labels today deal with various forms of sexuality, gender, racial identity, nationalism, political and economic philosophy, age, belief systems, and on and on… This just leads to terrible division, mistrust, and downright hatred for those who don’t represent our labels and agendas enough to satisfy us! And of course, with the ease of the Internet and social media, we can all righteously “virtue signal” to “our side” how right we are, and how wrong, stupid, and evil “they” are!

What most people don’t realize today is that this is nothing new! Since humanity’s fall in the Garden of Eden, sin has broken and destroyed us mentally, emotionally, physically, sexually, and has torn our very souls apart, leaving us broken and wandering aimlessly trying to recover the essence of true humanity that God created us for in the Garden before we sinned and rebelled. SIN is thinking and acting in ways that are less than God intended for us when he created us in His image originally. Sin literally means to “miss the mark”, such as when an archer misses their target. We ALL sin in thought, action, and motives, and the Bible tells us we can’t just overcome it by self-improvement and trying harder! We are ALL broken by sin, and only God can ultimately fix that brokenness!

To escape the never ending labels and accusations of human brokenness that we all struggle with, we need to let God rescue us from sin and give us his power to overcome and change! There are 3 major components to recognize if we want to go from brokenness, division, and hopelessness to new life and a brand new humanity!

 1) We are ALL “spiritual zombies!” – we are literally walking around spiritually dead because of our sins!

¹  As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, ²  in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. ³  All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. – Ephesians 2:1-3 (NIV)
 

As much as we like to think of ourselves as better than others and on the “right side” of many moral arguments, Paul says in God’s view, we are ALL hopelessly lost, actually following the ways of Satan, and have no ability to really get back to what we were meant to be as human beings originally! After all, a “dead person” has no power to make himself come alive!

Bummer!  Pretty bad news, huh?

2) BUT… GOD! These are the 2 most hopeful words in scripture, because God did something to rescue and save us!

⁴  BUT because of his great love for us, GOD, who is rich in mercy, ⁵  made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions–it is by grace you have been saved. ⁶  And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, ⁷  in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. ⁸  For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God– ⁹  not by works, so that no one can boast. ¹⁰  For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.  – Ephesians 2:4-10 (NIV)

Because we are hopeless and spiritually dead, God, in his mercy and grace (a free gift), made us alive through the death and resurrection of Jesus! He died in our place, took our punishment, and now we are forgiven by God for all our sins, and God now looks on as though we had never sinned! Jesus took on our sinful nature on the cross, and in exchange, we are able to take on his sinless nature through faith in him!

No notice… this is all GOD, not you and your best effort! Stop any pride, or arrogance or tooting your own horn! Your degrees, your accomplishments, your good looks and charm have no ability to save you; only God can do that! All that God asks of you and I is that we accept this free gift of salvation by FAITH, or trust, in Jesus. That means more than mere intellectual assent! It means trusting your life now, and forever, into the hands of Jesus!  And when we do that, it leads to a life-changing future! 

3) When we surrender our lives to Jesus, his gives us his POWER to change and become new creations ourselves! God softens our hearts and changes us from the inside out, slowly taking away our desire to sin and giving us His power to resist sin, and help us want to live his way!

So, what about the division, hatred, and labeling today? In every generation, including when the New Testament was written, people hated and mistrusted each other, just like today. In those times, there were divisions like the elite and rich Pharisees and Sadducees verses the poor and uneducated, men verses women (who were treated liked the husband’s property in the Roman Empire), Romans verses everybody else, Jews verses the Gentiles (anybody who was not a Jew), and free workers verses slaves (which were often more like hired servants at that time). It was said that Jewish men felt so superior to everyone else that they would begin the day by praying “Thank you, Lord, that I am not a Gentile, a slave, or a woman”!

That sounds like a prayer many would say about other groups today, doesn’t it? And today, many groups want to win elections, control money and power, and pass laws that justify their views, and shame or cancel the views of those that disagree. And because with many of our sinful habits we don’t have the desire or power to change, we just want to change society to believe that particular sinful behavior is now declared normal and good, and then we can now celebrate it!

But that’s not how God changes us, and he wants us all to overcome our sins and live again like we were created to live before sin wrecked our lives! When Jesus softened and healed the broken hearts of these various factions, they looked at each other differently! When Jesus’ love became dominant in their hearts, their differences no longer mattered, and they repented of their own sins, and for gave each other, and worked together to build each other into a new humanity that God desires for us all to join! Paul describes this in Ephesians 2:

¹⁴  For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, ¹⁵  by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, ¹⁶  and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. ¹⁷  He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. ¹⁸  For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. ¹⁹  Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, ²⁰  built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. ²¹  In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. ²²  And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.  –Ephesians 2:14-22 (NIV)

When these groups that had always hated and mistrusted each other began to love and forgive each other, and sacrifice for each other, it changed their culture and drew many others to Jesus and a new life that can last for eternity!

And it can happen today again!

Remember, God doesn’t change people through government, or new laws, or secular education programs.

God changes people when they come to him with humble, contrite, and broken hearts!

When you come to God with your brokenness and want to change and trust your life to Jesus, and live his way (repent), he will graciously forgive all your sins and give you His power to become a new person!

Then you can see others the way Jesus sees them, and learn to love those you may have hated before!

Today, we hear many stories of spiritual revival around the world!

Revival happens when people humble themselves before God, repent of their hardened hearts, and seek God’s forgiveness and power to change and love God and others with tender hearts.

As I write this, I sense I need to repent and soften my heart towards some people and groups today.

Maybe you feel that way too!

Whenever we humble ourselves before God, it opens up the door to God’s fresh power from His Spirit to blow through us and change us, and in turn change the world around us!

I want that power for me, and I want that power for you as well!

I’m going to close by sharing a beautiful prayer from Ephesians 3 were Paul prayed for that life changing power to come again on his people! I’m praying this for me, and for you, and I look forward to what God may do in, and with, our lives as we surrender again to Him!

Ephesians 3:14-21 (NIV)
¹⁴  For this reason I kneel before the Father, ¹⁵  from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. ¹⁶  I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷  so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸  may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, ¹⁹  and to know this love that surpasses knowledge–that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. ²⁰  Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, ²¹  to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted”

– Jesus, in Matthew 5:4

2020 was the worst year of my life for mourning and grief! My older sister Marlene died in August, and then my wife Claudia (CJ to many) died in October. Even though CJ and I were mature Christians and understood that physical death was not the end of her real life, and that she would immediately be in Jesus’ presence after her last breath, it still was an awful, painful and disappointing experience to go through! I recently reviewed one of my blogs I wrote in September of 2020, about 1 ½ months before she died. I was sharing how we both felt about our own grieving, so I’m going to share an excerpt of that blog with you because I think it reflects how most people feel when they experience grief and mourning (you can read that full blog on my blog site at www.boomers4jesus.org ) :

“When I refer to CJ’s “status”, most folks think of her physical status in relation to her cancer. To be honest, it is not good. She is getting weaker each week, and struggles with shortness of breath and water retention as symptoms of this cancer. Fortunately, the pain has been quite manageable and the medication is doing the trick in keeping the pain down. It’s also good that she is still fully alert and enjoys reading, watching TV, listening to praise music, doing her Bible studies, and is still active on social media with friends. Saturday all of our kids & grandkids came over for the day and that was wonderful to have all 17 of us together!

While we both continue to pray for God’s  physical healing and have no doubt he can do that, and we know many of you are praying that as well, it is becoming more likely that God is not going to do that. CJ’s body is dying, and we are certainly aware of God’s presence and leading as we go through this process. As humans there is no easy way to go through this process, and to put it in human (not spiritual) terms, dying sucks! We both grieve those things we will never do together any more, and CJ grieves especially not seeing our 9 grandkids grow up, get married, etc. As those of you who have gone through this experience of losing a spouse, child, parent, relative, or friend, you know life is never always fair and the way we think it should be! It is easy as we face the process of physical death to fall prey to fear, discouragement, and hopelessness, especially if you don’t believe there is life after death.”  – from Sept. 9^th, 2020

We mostly think of grief and mourning in relation to the loss of a loved one. But you can also grieve over a broken marriage that leads to divorce, a serious accident or illness, a child who falls prey to addiction or criminal activity, the loss of a job, a broken friendship, or anything that seems like it should never happen and is just not fair or right! When anything like this affects us deeply, we have an innate sense that “this is just not right, this is not the way it’s supposed to be”!

So, what is Jesus getting at in the passage above when he says “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted”? This is from his “Sermon on the Mount”, and this is the 2^nd of eight Beatitudes, or “Kingdom Values” that I would like to explore with you. These are values and character traits that Jesus wants us to develop that will reflect his character and bring glory to His Father. As we mature in, and live out, these eight Kingdom Values, Jesus will bless us with spiritual advantages that will strengthen us and give us unshakable hope as we face the chaos and darkness of our sin-stained world. These will enable us to see our lives, and our world, from God’s perspective. And that can lead to peace of mind and hope for an eternal future!

1) Mourning and grief are a response to the brokenness and sin that mars our world and affects us all!

Remember God’s perspective: He created us to live with him in the Garden of Eden, free from sin and all its evil effects. In that sinless setting, we would never get sick or die, there would be no wars, hatred, hunger, crime, abuse, or any of the horrible effects we see from sin every day in our fallen world. But, when Adam & Eve rebelled and sinned, they were banned from God’s presence and the result of sin was physical and spiritual death for all in the human race, and all of the brokenness and chaos that is our world today!

So when we mourn and grieve, our souls are crying out that this is not right, this is not the way it was supposed to be! Even in our sinfulness and separation from God’s intimate love, even in the hearts of those who don’t believe in God at all, there is an innate knowledge and sense that all of this horrible crap we see in the world every day is just not right, it’s not the way things are supposed to be, and we KNOW there should be something better than this in life!

2) Jesus is calling us to mourn like God does!

God hates the effects of sin in our lives also, and mourns and weeps for us as well! God is constantly encouraging people to repent from their sinfulness (turn and go the other way), and if they do, he will gladly forgive them, make life better now, and promise a future new Kingdom that will be like the Garden of Eden, restored and without any sin!

In the prophet Joel, 2:12-13, God says,
¹²  “Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; ¹³  and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.

Too many people just succumb to the horrors of sin, and in today’s culture, we have even come to accept and even celebrate some of the results of sin! It’s like people believe “this is just the way it is in the world, and nothing will ever change or get better!” BUT THAT’S NOT TRUE!! Jesus came to die for our sin, and his Resurrection overcame the power of sin and enables us to have his power to resist and overcome sin as well! And, while we still may struggle with the effects of sin, God promises to comfort us through his Holy Spirit and give us his amazing peace in the midst of whatever circumstances we may face.

3) Mourning as God mourns will give us an unshakable hope and lead us into a future Kingdom with Jesus, where we will have new bodies and never get sick or die!

Mourning and grieving means we DON’T accept the sinful status quo of this world, and we long with hope for God’s promise of a better world! It’s really very similar to the definition of faith in Hebrews 11:1—“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not yet seen”.

Mourning reminds us that a new “morning” is coming, a better day and place in which all sin will be reversed, and we again joyfully live forever in the very presence of God on a newly restored and sinless earth!

John describes it this way in Revelation 21: 1-5:

¹  Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. ²  And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. ³  And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. ⁴  He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” ⁵  And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

Mourning and grief are hard to bear and endure. But in the midst of all that sense of loss and unfairness, trusting in God will remind us that sin is not the last word in his plan! Sure, I miss Claudia and wish the cancer had never happened, but because I know and trust Jesus, I also have great comfort in my life and look forward to the rest of my life on earth with peace, joy, and anticipation of what God has for me in the future! And, I find great comfort in knowing that Claudia is amazingly happy now in Jesus’ presence, and that all the pain and hurt she endured has already been reversed and wiped away, and she is restored to the beautiful daughter of God that she always aspired to be here in earth. And, we will meet again, as brother and sister in Jesus in the new and amazing family of God in his new Kingdom!

I don’t wish the experience of mourning and grief on any of you…

but, knowing that we will all experience times of loss and grief, perhaps many times in life;

I pray that that you will turn to God and let him help you to mourn and grieve as he does, and then trust him for the comfort, peace, and eternal hope for a new and better Kingdom that he so eagerly wants to give you, if you will just trust his son Jesus!

Most of us begin a New Year with optimism! We hope it’s even better than previous years, and many of us seek to change our lives and do better in many areas: lose weight, exercise more, eat healthier, be kinder, stop looking at technology so much, read the Bible more, go to church more, etc.  All “good stuff”! And, doing any of that will make your life, and this new year, a little better!

But, did you realize that God wants to bless us with “great stuff” that is far better than that? Jesus tells us in Mathew 6:33 not to worry about all the stuff we see around us, but rather “seek first his Kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well”!  What “things” is Jesus talking about here? And what does it mean when we say, and pray, that God will “bless you”?

In Matthew 5-7, we read the “Sermon on the Mount”, given by Jesus probably over several days. Here Jesus lays out what it means to become part of his Kingdom, both now and in the future, when he returns to rule the entire earth and universe. In the beginning of this sermon, in Matthew 5:3-12, Jesus gives us eight distinct “Kingdom Values” to live by, and if we do live them out, there is a distinct “blessing” for each one from God that will only be given to those who live out these values, with God’s help. These values are also character traits that reflect the perfect life of Jesus. And, if we live them out daily, we will reflect Jesus to others, bring glory to him, and be blessed ourselves!

In this and some following blogs, I would like to highlight these eight Kingdom Values. I was inspired to do this by reading a wonderful new book by Dr. Tony Evans called “Kingdom Values: Character (Greater Than)  Chaos. I would encourage you to read this book and get a fuller understanding of what these values are and how God will “bless you” by living these out! You will notice 2 very important aspects to these Values: 1) they are almost always the opposite of what this secular world values most, and 2) you cannot fully live them out and receive God’s “blessing” for each one unless you surrender to God and let him help you! Let’s look at the first Kingdom Value:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven” – Matthew 5:3

The Kingdom Value: Spiritual Poverty!

Here Jesus is saying he will bless those who recognize that they do not have the spiritual capacity to address their own spiritual needs. The Bible says that because we are all born sinful, we are already “spiritually dead” and separated from God because of that fact! We can do all kinds of things to improve ourselves in body, mind, and spirit, but they all fall short of what only God can do for us. Thus, to be “poor in spirit” is to in essence declare “spiritual bankruptcy”, to recognize all my best efforts cannot come close to what God wants to give me spiritually if I surrender to his rule over my life. Tony Evans puts it this way: “A person who is poor in spirit understands that if God doesn’t act out of charity and give them what they need to live life as it is meant to be lived, they are going to starve to death spiritually.”

What does that say about common New Year’s resolutions? You can join a gym, lose all the weight you want to, feel great physically, fill your mind with all the positive thoughts to make you “the best you you’ve ever been”, and in God’s eyes, you’re still spiritually dead and impoverished and will miss out on the all the real power and blessings that he wants for you, now and forever! (I’m not saying that’s not good stuff, and being healthy is great, but don’t you also want the “better things” that God wants to give you?)

The apostle Paul was a powerful, influential, respected Jewish spiritual leader when Jesus confronted him on the road to Damascus and literally blinded him for a brief time so that he could spiritually “see” who Jesus was, and then follow him. Paul came to see all his worldly fame and knowledge was useless and even the antithesis to what Jesus wanted to give him. When he finally came to know, love, and follow Jesus the “light came on” in his mind and he could see his previous life as spiritual garbage compared to what he gained by surrendering his life to Jesus! He described it this way:

Philippians 3:4, 7-11 (NIV)
⁴  If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more:

⁷  But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸  What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ ⁹  and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ–the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. ¹⁰  I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹  and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

The Blessing: The Kingdom of God!

The “blessing” for spiritual poverty is that you get to be part of God’s Kingdom! And, it’s ONLY for those who recognize they are poor in spirit. Our culture values pride, personal success and strength, independence and control, a “self-made person”. We esteem those with power, control, and total self-reliance. Those are this world’s “winners”. In God’s upside-down Kingdom, he is basically telling us “If you think you have it all together and are the captain of your soul, go for it! But you will have no help from me, and you will never enter my Kingdom.” Just the opposite is true to enter God’s Kingdom:  he values humility, gentleness, and mercy, and only the person who sees they need Jesus as the source and sustainer of life is the “winner” and will inherit God’s Kingdom as a reborn and redeemed son or daughter!

The concept of God’s “blessing” can be described as “a state of well-being where Kingdom followers of Christ both enjoy and extend the goodness of God in their lives”. This becomes a normal way of life for a Kingdom disciple, not just a momentary feeling of happiness or energy. It’s similar to the idea of “joy” in scripture, which is described as an inner river that keeps flowing even in times of drought. The Holy Spirit is the source of all this peace, joy, and assurance. These are INNER resources that only God can give you!  And, it’s only for those who humble themselves before God and allow him to give them a brand new life as sons and daughters of his Kingdom, now and forever!

So as you begin 2023, it’s OK and even good to want to eat more healthy food, lose some weight, read the Bible daily, play more & better golf (my resolution, lol), and whatever else is productive and healthy for you. But, I hope you seek more than that! I hope you want to experience the inner power, peace, joy, and assurance that only come from Jesus as you surrender to his rule and live as a Kingdom follower. And the good news is, you don’t have to be perfect (because you’re not), and you don’t have to perform and look good for others! You just have to humbly trust Jesus, and ask him to help you!

I will soon write some more blogs on the other seven Kingdom Values that God wants to give us, and the blessings that come with them. Have a wonderful 2023! I pray the circumstances of your life are good and enjoyable for the most part. But even when they are not, I pray you will seek God’s Kingdom above all else, and experience the inner resources that will sustain you and give you peace and joy, no matter what!

¹⁴  For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, ¹⁵  from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, ¹⁶  that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷  so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸  may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, ¹⁹  and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. ²⁰  Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, ²¹  to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. -Ephesians 3:14-21 (ESV)

Did you ever wonder why you feel so good when you are really thankful for good family and friends who love you and are always “there for you”, no matter what? Or, maybe you have similar feelings when you’re in a beautiful place in nature on vacation and you can truly relax and enjoy the beauty, rest, and reinvigoration of the moment with friends or family, and it feels so good that you never want to go back to “real life” of school, work, etc.? I’m writing this the day before Thanksgiving. Those of us who are wise will use this one day, at least, to slow down from this divisive, face-paced, out of control culture we all live in, and reflect for a little while on what is truly good and wonderful in our lives, and be thankful. Others, sadly, will continue to be angry about politics, the world, their family, etc. and leave the day more tired, bitter, and maybe more angry than when they started!

How can we find lasting joy, happiness, peace and blessing in life? Is it even possible?  If you are looking for circumstantial happiness or joy that is always there, you will never find it! We all live in a broken world, broken by the effects of sin on us all. We will all have illness, tragedies, loss of income or goods, people who dislike us or betray us, and we will all lose family and friends to death at some point, and all of these circumstances might cause us to feel awful, angry, and hopeless. Nobody’s life is “blessed” all the time, no matter what their Facebook page might falsely portray!

The good news is, God has shown us a pathway to find peace, joy, and blessing in spite of the sin and brokenness that weighs on us all. But if you really want what God is offering, it all begins with knowing Jesus! The apostle Paul shared his life story with us in Philippians. Early in his life, he “had it all”. He was a wealthy, well-respected religious leader, was very intelligent and probably could out-debate anyone. He was in the “elite” class, everybody loved or feared him, and he was probably the type of person who got first row tickets given to him to any concert or sporting event of his day. The envy of everybody… and yet, he was empty!

In Philippians 3:7-11, Paul tells us how that all paled in comparison to finally coming to know Jesus personally:

⁷  But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸  What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ ⁹  and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ–the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. ¹⁰  I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹  and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. – Philippians 3:7-11 (NIV)

You see, when Paul surrendered to the call of Jesus on his life and became his follower, all the “cool stuff” of his past was meaningless and worthless compared to what he found in knowing Jesus personally! Now that doesn’t mean that everything went well or was easy for him; just the opposite happened! He lost most of his friends, he was ridiculed, he became poor, he was beaten often for his preaching and was even left for dead, and he was imprisoned many times for speaking the gospel. He actually wrote this letter from a prison in Rome, not too long before he was executed for his faith!

In spite of all that, Paul found an inner joy, peace, and hope that came from God and was unshakable in spite of outside circumstances! This joy and peace that God gives becomes a way of life, an attitude and viewpoint given to those who join God’s Kingdom and now see the world from His perspective. Being blessed and having joy are very similar concepts in the Bible, and may be described as “a state of well-being where Kingdom followers in Christ both enjoy and extend the goodness of God in their lives”.  (from Tony Evans, in his book “Kingdom Values”)

The Bible speaks of this inner state as a river that keeps flowing even in times of drought, and is given to us by the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Do you want that never-ending joy, peace, and hope in your life, no matter what the circumstances of the moment might be? I know I do!

Later in Philippians, Paul gives us a pathway and the results:

THE PATHWAY:

Philippians 4:4-6, 8-9 (NIV)
⁴  Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! ⁵  Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. ⁶  Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

⁸  Finally, brothers, 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. ⁹  Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me–put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

This is pretty basic, but powerfully effective stuff:

– Be gentle with others, and rejoice in all circumstances, not because they are all good, but because God is near you and helping you through the circumstances

– Don’t be anxious about anything! Instead, take all your concerns and needs to God in prayer, being thankful that he hears you and has all the power you need to deal with life!

– Focus on all the good stuff in life!.. what is noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent or praiseworthy! And then present that good stuff and the hope that is in you to the world around you. Life will be much more enjoyable and purposeful!

THE RESULTS:

⁷  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
¹¹  I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. ¹²  I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. ¹³  I can do everything through him who gives me strength. – Philippians 4:7, 11-13 (NIV)

This is the results we are looking for!

– God will give us a deep and lasting sense of peace that is greater than we can even understand, and it will protect our thoughts and feelings and keep us focused on God’s presence, power, and hope for a wonderful future with him!

– It will enable us to be content in any circumstance in life, and therefore we won’t have to worry or be anxious about anything! God will give us strength to face every phase of life with him!

When we trust our lives to Jesus, he offers us:

– Joy in the midst of everything we go through

– A peace that is permanent and beyond our understanding

– Gratitude for all the goodness he brings into our lives

– Power to be content in all circumstances, and the ability to share the hope we have with others

I pray you find God’s permanent joy and peace, and gratitude in your life, now and forever!