Phillipians 1:12-14 "Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ.14Because of my chains, most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly."
Each tuesday night, I meet with a group of guys for a small group time where we discuss God's word and lift each other up. Last week we started going through the book of Phillipians, and I have really enjoyed it. Last night in particular there were some things in the passage that we discussed that really stuck out to me, so I thought I would share those this morning. The first thing we have to realize here is that Paul is in prison in ROme when he writes this. He isn't just going about his normal life of traveling and such not. So that kind of sets the tone for how powerful these words are coming from him.
The first thing that stuck out to me is how he refers to the fact that as a result of his suffering, as a result of what has happened to him, it had become known throughout the entire palace guard, that he was imprisoned for Christ. In other words, there had to be something visible about what he was doing. There had to be an attitude coming from him that was different from the other prisoners. Not only was his attitude and zeal for God in prison a ministry tool, it was also an encouragement to fellow believers. It says next that because of his chains, his fellow brothers are preaching with more power, more courage and fearlessness. I think the thing that stuck out to me the most was the fact that it was because of his chains, and his struggles that this ministry occurred. It wasn't just because he was a nice guy that was standing up for Christ, it wasn't because he had a perfect life, no, it was because of the struggles and the hard times that he saw the response of those around him.
This really made me think about the power of ministry we have within our struggles and hard times. I believe that people tend to watch us more closely when we experience a trial or a hard time, just to see how we react. It is in those times that we often don't think about our actions and just respond depending on the situation at hand. Sometimes that is with anger, sometimes it is depression, sometimes it is just how we communicate with our body language. Nevertheless, people are watching.
So the point I want to make today is that we are constantly being watched. As believers in Christ, and as people who preach the word of God, we are watched extremely closely. We can chose to respond in the way that first comes to mind. We can chose not to think about it and just react. Or we can chose to think about how this struggle could be used as a powerful tool for God, and then react accordingly. What do people see you as today? Can they see a strong follower of God, or just another person? Food for thought.
2 Corinthians 1:3-7
"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort."
How many times do we look at our lives and the circumstances in our lives and wonder, WHY ME GOD?! I know for me this semester, it has been quite often. For those of you who don't know, this is my second year here at Moody Bible Institute. I decided last year that I was going to take 19 credits this semester, that way I wouldn't have to worry about doing 19 my senior year. Coming into this semester I had a strange feeling that this was going to be one of my hardest semesters, and it no doubt proved to be right. After the first week, I was feeling completely overwhelmed, I had 7 classes, 12 text books, and a lot of goals for the coming year. To top things off, that first week I found out that the job I was guaranteed to have, all of a sudden couldn't afford to hire me. Now for any of you that know me, you would know that I have had a job since I was 11 years old. I had never dealed with this before in any way shape or form. At first I just kind of shrugged it off and said to myself, its all good I will just find another job. So I started looking everywhere I could, but nothing came up.....So i prayed about it more and kept looking...for two weeks I looked for several hours each day, trying to find anything. But still nothing turned up. By this time I not only was mad about this situation, but I was also starting to regret that I had taken 19 credits to begin with. What was I thinking?! And within this, I started to question God. I started wondering why this was happening. Why is all this pressure being put on my life now? WHY ME GOD?!
Then one day, I was reading 2 Corinthians, and I came across the verse that is posted above. It starts out, "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of compassion and the God of all comfort who comforts us in all our troubles..." That first part hit me really hard. The attitude in which that is expressed in is amazing! Praise be to God! There is a spirit of rejoicing there, a spirit of knowing that God is in control. The verse continues to give a reason for the comfort we receive from our Father in heaven. It says, "so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God." Wow! That is all I can say about that. It definitely gives us a different perspective on how we react to the situations in our lives.
We are called as God's people to be an example to those around us, to both Christian and non-Christian people. Are praising God, and looking for the areas that he is showing us comfort? Or do we sit around and ask ourselves WHY ME GOD?! We forget our true purpose. My thoughts then went to one of my favorite verses in James chapter one verses 2-4 which says, "Consider it pure joy my brothers whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature, and complete not lacking anything." God has a reason for the struggles we go through. He has it fixed into his plan in some way or another, we just have to trust him. We can chose to try and deal with it and figure it out on our own, or we can come back to God and remember that the more we put our faith in him, the more he will strengthen our faith, and mature us in a way that people can see a difference.
The last half of the verse in 2 Corinthians is such an amazing part of it. Verse 5 says, "For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows." How awesome is it that we have the opportunity to share Christ and the gospel, through our struggles. We never know who is watching us, how we react could essentially be the changing factor in someones life. The key to that though is when it says through CHRIST, our comfort overflows. Not through ourselves, not through another method we might use to find comfort, but through Christ.
I have given up trying to solve all the problems in my life on my own. Its really a lot harder that way than if we just give it all to God. We like to be in control of things, and manage our lives the way we want them to be, but in reality....its God who has the final say. But we have to chose to give it to Him, and chose to look for the areas in which He is working.
So my encouragement to you today is to look at the difficult situations in your life. Maybe it is relationship issues, maybe it is mourning the loss of a loved one, maybe it is financial problems, whatever it is, you know. Try to look at it, not from the standpoint of WHY ME GOD?! But rather from with the attitude of a servant, and ask What for God? Seek him for how he will fit this into the plan for your life. Come to him with your tears, with your struggles, with everything you have. He always wants to listen, and He will always give an answer.
In Christ,
Matt Spangler
