Advent
December 10, 2015
Scripture Reading: Philippians 4:4-7
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, 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 understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Wouldn’t you just love to know the situation that resulted in the formation of these forever meaningful words scribed by Paul. Truth is this scripture has uniform application to all peoples of faith at all times. When we realize the first century time delay between letter receipt and a corresponding answer, the original issue may have been solved and others had taken its place by the time this message arrived.
I was reading a diagnosis of the problems the Oklahoma City Thunder are working on to move to a higher level of success and the word consistency crept into each issue. The fact is the Thunder is made up of really good players and coaches. When in their “A” game they are very hard to beat. Problems occur when they slack off, like not transitioning quickly to the other end after making a spectacular basket. They do not have time to bask in their glory, or be peeved that a foul was not called, or even to replace a shoe that popped off.
This is an example that Paul emulated and encourages us to follow. Keep implementing the game plan. For us that means keep loving even when justice has not prevailed, even when we felt we had really accomplished something big and could rest for a while on our laurels, even when we don’t have all the resources we might need. Let your gentleness be known to everyone.
Prayer: We do rejoice in you, O Lord, and pray that we will be consistent in implementing your game plan. Amen.
All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.