Rejoice. Always. Gentle. Near. Peace.
The heart of the lesson for our Ladies Bible Class yesterday morning was this:
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!
Let your gentle spirit be known to all men.
The Lord is near.
Be anxious for nothing,
but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving
let your requests be made known to God.
And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension,
will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:4-7
Those words that God inspired the apostle Paul to write to the Christians in Philippi were comforting to us all. Sue told us she repeats the verse about not being anxious about anything every night when she prays. Miss Frances showed me that the verse about rejoicing always was underlined in her Bible. The same passage comforted another group of women earlier this week. Those in the earlier group were a few years younger than I am; those in Ladies Bible Class were several years older. Yet, we all were drawn to these perfect words of encouragement.
Rejoice. Always. Gentle. Near. Peace.
Those Philippians were surely like all us women. They had cause for sadness. They were tempted to be harsh. They were lonely at least some of the time, and perhaps always. They were anxious about a great many things.
God understood this, so he gave Paul words of sweet comfort.
You can rejoice always.
You can be so gentle that everyone will know it. Everyone. All the time.
The Lord is near. You are not alone.
You don’t need to be anxious about anything.
God is waiting to hear every prayer, every supplication, every request about everything.
It is possible to be thankful.
Peace — God’s peace — that defies all comprehension is available all the time.
That peace will guard your heart and your mind — even your very own, very foggy brain.
All these things are available all the time in Christ Jesus.
And my God will supply all your needs
according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
Now to our God and Father be the glory forever and ever.
Amen.
Philippians 4:19-20
Ah-h-h-h-h. That feels so good, so very good.
Oh, my sweet friend, Charlene…. What a balm this was to my heart this morning. The Lord is so sweet to me to use you to speak words of truth to my heart this morning. His mercies are indeed new every morning and GREAT is His faithfulness! Looking forward to the webnar tonight. Wish we lived there and I could go to your ladies’ Bible study. It sounds wonderful!
Love you,
Cindy
Thank you, my sweet friend, Cindy.
I got a journaling Bible for Christmas and decided to sign up for a 31day Bible study/journaling class (via online video sent to my inbox every day) and we have been journaling and studying Fruits of the Spirit all week and going to different verses that extol those fruits. I have been amazed at how many verses encourage us to practice those same fruits over and over. Such “wait upon the Lord” —puts our longsuffering or patience into practice. The verses you quote about….reJOYce, peace of God, gentleness….all these things that we cannot manufacture on our own, they are fruits of the Holy Spirit, God in us! I have so enjoyed meditating on these fruits and seeing them expounded all over the Word in different places! This blog post was just another timely help, not a coincidence, an on-purpose from God. Thank you.