Those are beautiful verses, you know. It’s something we’d love to be able to do. Rejoice always. Be gentle with everyone. Trust God and be thankful. Have the peace of God in our hearts and in our minds always.
We’d like to be able to do that. And sometimes we resolve that we’re going to. But then, life gets in the way. You wake up,and something hurts. It might be the same something or it might be a different something, but something hurts. You struggle to get out of bed. Maybe you can’t get out of bed without help. You struggle to get dressed, or maybe you need help with that, too. You come to breakfast and
see the same things you see every day. The same people you see every day, too.
Sometimes, it seems like life is just one darn thing after another. And when it’s not, it seems like it’s just the same old, same old. When life seems like that, it’s pretty hard to rejoice, like our reading from Philippians told us to do. We know we should be gentle with people, but sometimes our frustration and our pain becomes more than we can handle, and we lash out. We know we should trust God and be thankful, but sometimes it’s really hard for us to come up with anything to be thankful for. And so, we don’t feel the peace of God in our lives.
So what do we do? Well, I think part of the answer lies in four little words that I skipped over until now. Those words are “the Lord is near.”
Now, when Paul was writing this, I suspect he meant it in a literal sense. Paul really believed that Jesus would be coming back to earth soon. After all, Paul had already had an experience of the resurrected Jesus, when he was blinded on the road to Damascus. Paul, and a lot of the other apostles, thought Jesus might very well come back in their lifetimes. I’m suspect that’s the main thing Paul meant when he wrote “the Lord is near.”
But you know, the incredible thing about the Bible is that it’s the inspired word of God. That means the words can have meaning beyond what even the human writers of the Bible may have understood when they wrote it. It seems to me there’s another meaning to the words “the Lord is near”, and that meaning is really important when we talk about having peace in our lives.
We need, as we go through our lives, to feel that the Lord is near to us. We need to feel God’s presence with us. We need to feel that God is guiding us and encouraging us. That’s when we feel the peace of God in our lives. When we don’t feel God’s presence, when we don’t feel that the Lord is near, that’s when things start to get us down.That’s when life becomes one darn thing after another. That’s when life feels like the same old same old. And that’s when we don’t feel the peace of God in our lives.
So what do we do? How do we keep feeling that the Lord is near us? Understand, the Lord is near us always. It’s just that sometimes we cannot feel God’s presence. How do we get that feeling back? Or, if we have it, how do we keep from losing it?
Well, Paul says one more thing in these verses. He says “in every situation, by prayer and petition…present your requests to God.”
I think that’s how we get the feeling that the Lord is near. I also think that’s how we keep from losing the feeling that the Lord is near. I think the way to feel God’s presence is to spend some time with God. In other words, the way to feel God’s presence is to pray.
Now, I’m not claiming prayer is some sort of magic spell. It’s not like we’ll pray once and “poof”, we’ll have the peace of God in our lives. It could happen like that, of course, but a lot of times it does not. A lot of times, it takes time. A lot of times we have to pray repeatedly, over and over again.
And sometimes, we have to change the way we pray. Paul says we should present our requests to God, and we should. But there’s something else we need to pray, too. Four words. You’ve said them many times. You say them at least once a week if you come to services out here, probably more. The words are “thy will be done.”
Sometimes, when we don’t feel God’s presence, when we don’t feel the peace of God in our lives, it’s because we’re focused on our own will, rather than God’s will. That’s not necessarily because our will is evil or bad or anything. The things we want, in our will, may be good and reasonable things. They’re just not what God wants for us. And so we have to step back. We can still present our requests to God, but once we’ve done so, we need to say, “Thy will be done.”
If we can say that, and truly mean it, then we’ll be able to accept what happens. We’ll be able to accept the pains and struggles of life. Life won’t seem like the same old same old, because we’ll be looking for the beauty in life. We’ll be able to be gentle with others, because we’ll know they’re going through the same struggles we are. Once we accept God’s will, we can be thankful, because we will feel God’s presence in our lives. And then, we will be able to rejoice.
In less than two weeks it’ll be Christmas. We’ll celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace. Let’s use that celebration as a chance for us to go to God humbly and accept God’s will. Then, we will truly be able to rejoice at the birth of our Savior.
Sometimes, it seems like life is just one darn thing after another. And when it’s not, it seems like it’s just the same old, same old. When life seems like that, it’s pretty hard to rejoice, like our reading from Philippians told us to do. We know we should be gentle with people, but sometimes our frustration and our pain becomes more than we can handle, and we lash out. We know we should trust God and be thankful, but sometimes it’s really hard for us to come up with anything to be thankful for. And so, we don’t feel the peace of God in our lives.
So what do we do? Well, I think part of the answer lies in four little words that I skipped over until now. Those words are “the Lord is near.”
Now, when Paul was writing this, I suspect he meant it in a literal sense. Paul really believed that Jesus would be coming back to earth soon. After all, Paul had already had an experience of the resurrected Jesus, when he was blinded on the road to Damascus. Paul, and a lot of the other apostles, thought Jesus might very well come back in their lifetimes. I’m suspect that’s the main thing Paul meant when he wrote “the Lord is near.”
But you know, the incredible thing about the Bible is that it’s the inspired word of God. That means the words can have meaning beyond what even the human writers of the Bible may have understood when they wrote it. It seems to me there’s another meaning to the words “the Lord is near”, and that meaning is really important when we talk about having peace in our lives.
We need, as we go through our lives, to feel that the Lord is near to us. We need to feel God’s presence with us. We need to feel that God is guiding us and encouraging us. That’s when we feel the peace of God in our lives. When we don’t feel God’s presence, when we don’t feel that the Lord is near, that’s when things start to get us down.That’s when life becomes one darn thing after another. That’s when life feels like the same old same old. And that’s when we don’t feel the peace of God in our lives.
So what do we do? How do we keep feeling that the Lord is near us? Understand, the Lord is near us always. It’s just that sometimes we cannot feel God’s presence. How do we get that feeling back? Or, if we have it, how do we keep from losing it?
Well, Paul says one more thing in these verses. He says “in every situation, by prayer and petition…present your requests to God.”
I think that’s how we get the feeling that the Lord is near. I also think that’s how we keep from losing the feeling that the Lord is near. I think the way to feel God’s presence is to spend some time with God. In other words, the way to feel God’s presence is to pray.
Now, I’m not claiming prayer is some sort of magic spell. It’s not like we’ll pray once and “poof”, we’ll have the peace of God in our lives. It could happen like that, of course, but a lot of times it does not. A lot of times, it takes time. A lot of times we have to pray repeatedly, over and over again.
And sometimes, we have to change the way we pray. Paul says we should present our requests to God, and we should. But there’s something else we need to pray, too. Four words. You’ve said them many times. You say them at least once a week if you come to services out here, probably more. The words are “thy will be done.”
Sometimes, when we don’t feel God’s presence, when we don’t feel the peace of God in our lives, it’s because we’re focused on our own will, rather than God’s will. That’s not necessarily because our will is evil or bad or anything. The things we want, in our will, may be good and reasonable things. They’re just not what God wants for us. And so we have to step back. We can still present our requests to God, but once we’ve done so, we need to say, “Thy will be done.”
If we can say that, and truly mean it, then we’ll be able to accept what happens. We’ll be able to accept the pains and struggles of life. Life won’t seem like the same old same old, because we’ll be looking for the beauty in life. We’ll be able to be gentle with others, because we’ll know they’re going through the same struggles we are. Once we accept God’s will, we can be thankful, because we will feel God’s presence in our lives. And then, we will be able to rejoice.
In less than two weeks it’ll be Christmas. We’ll celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace. Let’s use that celebration as a chance for us to go to God humbly and accept God’s will. Then, we will truly be able to rejoice at the birth of our Savior.
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