God has kept two sections of Scripture biding for my time lately. These two pericopes have been orbiting my heart and mind as of late and they swirl slowly past so that I have time to look at each one separately as well as together. I have been trying to see how they compliment each other and why. The first passage is Philippians 4:4-7 and the second is 1 Corinthians 13. In Phil 4, Paul tells the Philippians to "rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice." In this life, how do we rejoice in the Lord? How do we rejoice in the Lord that allows terrorism and Battens disease? How can I be "anxious for nothing" as this text later says? It says in everything by prayer and supplications with thanksgiving let your request be made known to God and the peace that surpasses all understanding will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. Well, I've prayed. I've prayed and made requests. I've prayed with thanksgiving. But I'm still anxious. I still worry. Macayla is still sick. Why? I mean I did exactly what the text said to do many times over and I still have worry and not much peace. Maybe I don't have enough faith. Or maybe this is not a formula for ridding the world of anxiousness. Maybe I shouldn't take Philippians 4 for anxiousness like I take aspirin for a headache.
I was making a request known to God the other day. I prayed for patience with Macayla as we fought to get her meds down. Parents often pray for patience. I do all the time. But no patience seemed to ever come my way. Then it happened. I was driving, Macayla was yelling in anger at me over something I couldn't figure out and Jacob was making his requests and supplications known to ME about staying home for the day, getting his apple juice, and watching Batman all at once. My nerves were in the cheese grater and all I could do was pray for patience. The answer: "love is patient. love is kind." 1 Corinthians 13 was spoken to me. I then realized I needed to stop praying for a byproduct and start praying for the source. Love is the source of patience. The source of kindness. Love is not jealous, it doesn't boast, it is not arrogant. Love does not keep account of wrongs suffered. Love is, in other words, the source of contentment. Love bears all things. This word in the Greek for "bears" carries the image of thatching a roof to cover and shelter from the elements. Love shelters. Love is the source of all this and God is the source of Love. God is Love.
The word rejoice in Phil 4 is translated from a Greek word that is a root for the word "grace." Love was freely given by God to us on the cross and resurrection. It is this grace that makes it possible for me to rejoice and to love. 1 Corinthians 13:13 is engraved inside my wedding band. It isn't there as some quaint, poetic reminder that I "love" my wife. It is a reminder inside a never ending circle of the never ending love of God. A reminder of his eternal faithfulness. This is so I can go to the source. God is the only source I can go to that can supply me with the kind of love my wife needs. The kind of love Macayla and Jacob need. To supply me with patience, kindness, contentment, forgiveness, and the ability to rejoice in Him always. It is through this grace that I know the Lord is near guarding my heart and mind from worry. I pray that I continue to see the source more and more fully. I pray for his love.
Then I heard our pastor reference Romans 8:35-39 in the sermon and this gave such great assurance about Christ's love. "Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril or sword?...But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through him who loved us." Paul writes that he is convinced that there is nothing (death, life, angels, demons, present, future, powers, height, depth, or any created thing) can separate us from the love of Christ. This love, this source is present in my life only because of Christ and only because he is so faithful to pour it out in grace.
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