Reading your Bible for Today November 3

November 3: Philippians 4:4

Key Verse: Philippians 4:4
Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!

Devotion:
How often do you let things get you down? How often do you get upset about small things in your life? How often do you let those small things build up until you 'explode'? How often do you seek help rather than just sitting on things? For most of us the answer to these is going to be that we sit on things, we allow them to get to us and we don't often seek outside help; at least not as often as we maybe should!

Philippians is a letter to the church at Philippi from the Apostle Paul who was currently in prison at the time. This did not stop him from writing such words as these: “Rejoice in the Lord alway”. He refused to allow his current position get in the way of his relationship with Christ. He refused to allow things to get to him simply because of the knowledge that Christ had allowed this to happen and something was going to happen which would glorify God.

This letter which he wrote has been added to a book which we call The Bible along with many other writings over the years so we can gain a better understanding of the relationship others have had with God over the years. Paul set time aside to make sure his feelings were portrayed in the letter; feelings of love and of contentment in Christ. His goal was to continue in his teaching of the people of Philippi through any opportunity given to him. His thought was probably “why should I let my personal grief get in the way of my happiness in Christ”?

And that should be our outlook in our lives. Why should we allow what happens in our lives to get in the way with our relationships with Christ? When we walk with Christ, we see His wonders and His power and experience His love. When we walk away, we see just how unjust we can be; at this point we should be looking back and seeing what we are missing and long to get back to Christ at our earliest convenience! In this way, we will be able to continually rejoice in Christ. Not just saying “yay”, but truly rejoicing that He has accomplished everything for us already!

Points to Ponder:
So what is playing on your mind today?

How often do you share your problems with Christ?