Monthly Archives: August 2010

Finally, here we are. Talking about the present.  Because that’s where we live. Today.  It’s easy to see lessons and morals of the stories from our past. And it’s easy to think of the future with high hopes and dreams and rose-colored glasses, but we live in the mundane every day.  And it’s fun to be here and study our Bibles all day and laugh and stay up late and eat  whatever we want and play outside and hike and swim and just love everything. But today we go home.  We go home to jobs, family, roommates. Mundane days.  Tasks.  We have rooms to clean, meals to make.  Many of us probably have jobs that we don’t love.  We have little kids to nanny, difficult situations to face. That’s the nitty gritty of daily life.  And that’s where Christ is our peace.

I experienced this sort of let-down recently when we went on vacation (camping, playing, extra hands to help with kids, etc.) Then we got home.  All of a sudden we plummeted from cloud 9.  The house was a mess, we had mountains of laundry to do, the kids were cranky and tired, we had tons of yard projects to tackle, we were all hungry with no food in the house, and that is life.  We don’t live life at retreats or campgrounds or on vacation. We live life doing mundane tasks, in mundane and/or difficult situations. So how do we live for Christ in the present.  With Christ as our peace.

Because I find that the stresses of each moment are usually more than the worries of the future.  It’s often the little things of each day (messes, not having anything to wear, just feeling grumpy or moody, interpersonal weirdness, busyness, etc. etc. etc.), these little things that most often disrupt my peace. Way more often than the big things of the future. I never get bent out of shape thinking about Dutch’s college education.  I do get pretty grumpy though when he won’t lie down for his nap. That disrupts my peace.

So the present. What do we see here for the present?  We don’t have to wonder, we have here some very clear commands, from Philippians 3:4-9

“Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice… do not be anxious 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 midns in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.  What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me–practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you” (vv4-9).

Here’s what I see:

• Rejoice in the Lord always (v.4).  This is not a suggestion. It is a command. Rejoice is a command.  How do you rejoice.  We choose to find joy in a situation. This is positive thinking that’s based on faith and truth. It’s not just trying to think happy thoughts, it’s choosing to focus on the things that give us cause to rejoice. And, when we are in Christ, we have plenty of things to rejoice in!  Can you list things, real things, that give you cause to rejoice today?
• Do not be anxious (v.6). Again, not a suggestion.  To worry is to sin. Isn’t that crazy?  When we are anxious, we are not walking by faith. I struggle with this sooo often.  Sometimes, when I let all the little considerations of life creep in, I can feel so anxious it just paralyzes me. We must choose to not be anxious.
• Instead, pray (v.6). This is how we experience God’s peace.  When we are anxious (daily), we are to stop, choose to rejoice, choose to thank God, and then present all our needs and worries and requests and needs to Him.  Give it all to Him! Roll over every worry and concern.  Tell Him how you feel. Be honest.  Way too often we vent our real thoughts to our friends and yet when we talk to God we get all religious and fake.  One read through the Psalms shows us this is what David did.  Don’t vent to friends, vent to God.  Tell Him all. He can take it.
• Receive God’s peace (v.7). Choose to rest in God’s peace. Abide in it. It never leaves. You might leave, but it doesn’t.  Stay there.  How do we stay there?
• Fix your mind on…(v.8) whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, praiseworthy.  Isaiah 26:3 “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in You.” This is also a command.  Again, what are you feeding your mind?  We must choose to fix our minds on things that are praiseworthy. It’s all about our minds.  God’s perfect peace is for those whose minds are stayed on Him.
• Practice what you’ve learned (v.9). It’s game day! We’ve learned, prayed, studied.  We’ve meditated and played and gotten refreshed and refilled. Now, it’s time to put it all into practice.  And that’s how we grow in this walk with God. By practice practice practice.  It might feel hard at first, awkward, forced. But soon we will find ourselves loving each other with humility, fixing our mind on Christ as our goal, forgetting the past, trust Him with worries, growing more and more in love with Jesus.  We grow by simply practicing what we know.

And the promise?  “What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me–practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you” (v.9).

What have you learned and received and heard and seen this weekend?  What was your “aha!” moment. What nugget did you get? What is your takeway?  Whatever it is, put it into practice, and the God of peace will be with you.  Share with someone here what it is that you will put into practice upon going home.  And rest in God’s peace, because for us to live is Christ.

It’s cheesy, but perhaps you’ve heard it said that JOY comes from having the priorities Jesus, Others, You.  I know, cheesy. But there’s some truth to it. And interestingly, Philippians, which is the book all about joy, follows that outline. We’ve talked about Christ being our life. First and foremost, He is our consideration.  Secondly, we talked about how to relate to Others, our second most important consideration. And finally, we’ll talk about how this all relates to you during these last two sessions. Specifically, how am I to relate to my past, present and future.  Tonight we’ll hit on past and future and tomorrow morning finish up with present.

We’ve already spent a lot of time studying this passage, but here are the keys that I see. If it is true that to live is Christ, then He Himself is our goal in life.  That’s it.  Your life goal? Christ.  He is our goal.

So if Christ is our goal, how does that impact the way we relate to our …

Past (vv 1-11)

• We no longer find our significance in our accomplishments (Phil 3:3). Our value, worth, dignity, is found in Christ, in being made in His image.  (talk about the social resume-giving that is so common among young adults). It isn’t about what college you go to, what major you have, where you live, what car you drive, what clothes you wear, how many facebook friends you have.  Count it all loss compared to Christ.
• We gladly lose anything that doesn’t contribute to God’s glory (Phil 3:8). This means that even if I have a full-ride scholarship to a certain school, but I know God’s calling me elsewhere, I gladly “lose” whatever I need to lose in order to follow God.  (Example: support-raising after college)
• We use all that we have as a platform for the gospel (Acts 21:40ff). This also might mean God does want to use that scholarship…for Him.  I was so blessed to have a full-ride scholarship through college, and earned it for graduate school as well.  Which means, that a private scholarship fund paid 100% of my seminary education!  That’s crazy!  So if you have a talent or skill, ability, scholarship, opportunity, gift–whatever you have, use it for God’s kingdom, just like Paul did.

Future (vv12-21)

• We don’t let the past trip up our future (v. 13). Paul had done horrible things in his years before Christ got hold of his heart.  He was full repentant, and I’m sure he never forgot what he’d done.  But he didn’t let that hold him back.  When we hold onto the sin of our past, we’re essentially saying that what Jesus did on the cross wasn’t enough.  When we are forgiven, we are forgiven past, present, future.  Let it go.
• We STRAIN forward (v.13).  Paul isn’t talking about moseying into church once a week and listening to a sermon and calling that Christianity. If Christ is our life, our goal, we go after Him with all our heart.  Consider an Olympic or college/professional athlete . How do they train?  While sipping chai curled up on a couch? They train, strive, sweat.  They’re up early, they’re practicing, lifting, running, training. That’s the image here.  When we follow Christ we are enlisting in some intense training–for life.
• We fix our focus (v.19). This is critical.  If Christ is our goal, then HE must be what we fix our focus on.  Not garbage TV shows or fashion magazines or romance novels or any number of things that distract us here on earth.  We are Christians not just Americans, which means that we were not born here just to accumulate wealth, have babies, drive a minivan and mow the lawn until we die.  We have something greater to DO while we’re here. Fix our focus on the things of God.  What is the input into your mind??

It’s critical that we deal with our past and set our faces resolutely toward the future to seek all that God has for us.  Let’s do that tonight.

Yesterday we talked a little bit about how life can seem so complicated. And of all the areas that get complicated in our lives, relationships seem to always top the chart.

In fact, think of all the close relationships in your life and try to name one, just one, that has never had a single complication.  Never a hurt feeling or misspoken word, never a misunderstanding or assumption that caused confusion.  I know I can’t name a single one.  And yet, God made us relational beings and He is a relational God.  We were created for relationship, and how we relate to those around us is the greatest indicator of how our relationship with God is really doing.  Are your earthly relationships a wreck?  Drama around every corner? Chances are that something’s probably out of whack in your walk with God too, right?

Interestingly, Paul knew that no matter how lofty is our ambition to live for Christ, there are still some sticky relational dynamics here on earth. In fact, part of the reason he writes this letter is to name a few names and exhort some ladies to just get along!  Euodia and Syntyche (4:2) had a little squabble, apparently.  We don’t know what it was about, but it seems that catfights are nothing new.  Even with the best of intentions, we are all fallen beings and find that relational difficulties are part of life.

Philippians 2 offers what I think may be the best discourse on how to navigate relationships.  Once again, he seeks to take what can be complicated, and make it very simple.  They key?

Humility.

That’s it.  He writes,

“Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.  Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.  Have this mind among yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of god, did not count equality with god a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:3-8).

So much to say about humility.   Last year I had the joy of teaching this passage to the women’s Bible study, so I’d like to share a few thoughts from that session:

V. 3 We’ve all heard that saying that humility isn’t thinking less of yourself it’s thinking of yourself less.  Interestingly—I think this passage and all of scripture teaches that it’s not one or the other but both.  Humility is forgetting about yourself, AND having a modest opinion of yourself. “Do nothing out of rivalry or conceit.”  Let’s look at each of these clauses:

Rivalry or conceit: Rivalry is competition. How many in here are competitive by nature?  Listen to what CS Lewis says about this:  “Pride is essentially competitive – is competitive by its very nature – Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next person.  We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not.  They are proud of being richer; or cleverer; or better-looking than others. If everyone else became equally rich, or clever, or good-looking there would be nothing to be proud about. Once the element of competition is gone, pride is gone.”

This is a serious warning for women.  Men tend to be outwardly competitive—in sports and games and such. But women can be inwardly competitive, which I believe is twice as deadly.  Love and competition are mutually exclusive, they cannot exist together: “Love seeks not its own.”

And the way to quit competing is to quit comparing.  Ladies this is a VICE if there ever was one.  We do it!  We compare our bodies, our clothes, our education, our jobs.  We size everything and everyone up by how they compare to US.  That is comparing which is competing.  YUCK. I very vividly remember a moment in college when I was sitting in class next to this girl who was GORGEOUS (Miss Oregon) and also happened to be my friend and roommate. And I remember sitting there in Shakespeare class and thinking about how her thighs were so much skinnier than mine.  And of course we laugh at that because it’s ridiculous but we do the same thing in more sophisticated ways now (and not so sophisticated ways!).  When we do this we are proving that our confidence is based on pride:  On the contrary, later in chapter 3 Paul says “We… worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.”

Instead:  “Count others more significant than yourself.”  Isn’t it funny that Paul uses the word “count”. It’s like he knows we’re playing the competition game.  He knows we’re inwardly counting up the score.  And he says, no matter what the evidence says, COUNT others as better than yourself.  Quit evaluating, quit keeping score, just decide once and for all that you will quit the race, quit the competition, and just esteem others as better than yourself.  You can’t lose a race you aren’t running!  And you cannot humiliate the person who humbles himself. (Shawna at the girls’ retreat story)

Tozer says this:  P 112 “Think for yourself whether much of your sorrow has not arisen from someone speaking slightingly of you.  As long as you set yourself up as a little god to which you must be loyal there will be those who will delight to offer an affront to your idol. How then can you hope to have inward peace?  The heart’s fierce effort to protect itself from every slight, to shield its touchy honor from the bad opinion of friend and enemy, will never let the mind have rest. Continue this fight through the years and the burden will become intolerable. Yet we are carrying this burden continually, challenging every word spoken against us, cringing under every criticism, smarting under each fancied slight, tossing sleepless if another is preferred before us…”

Humility frees us from the race.  Murray says “true humility comes when, in light of God, we have seen ourselves to be nothing, have consented to part with and cast away self—to let God be all.  The soul that has done this and can say, “So have I lost myself in finding You,” no longer compares itself with others. It has forever given up every thought of self in God’s presence…The humble person feels no jealousy or envy.  He can praise God when others are preferred and blessed before him. He can bear to hear others praised and himself forgotten.”  He is freed from himself.

This is why I’d say that humility is the most freeing quality of life.  In fact it isn’t just one virtue along with others, but is the root of all other virtues. It is the root of all godliness.  Just like the quote that Chris read last week, pride is the complete anti-God state of mind. Therefore humility is the path, the only path to godliness, Christ-likeness. It is the PATH to unity, to love. It isthe path to Christ, the path to maturity.  It is the only way to save a marriage, the only way to be a good friend. It is the only way to truly love.  Humility is the root of all other virtues.

v. 4 read So here’s where I struggle. How do I get humble?  I feel like I can sit around all day and think “she’s better than me she’s better than me she’s better than me.” And that doesn’t help anything.  So even when we think that everyone else is more significant or better than us, yes I might get a modest opinion of myself, which is a start, but that’s only half the battle because now maybe I’m not conceited but I’m totally self-focused.  I’m not conceited but I’m depressed! And just to level with you I think I have lived much of my Christian life in this place.  Remember we said humility is BOTH thinking less of yourself and thinking of yourself less?   Sometimes perhaps we’ve done the “think less of yourself part” but we haven’t done the “think of yourself less” part.  I was only HALFWAY understanding humility. It’s like I’ve read verse 3 over and over and over and decided that if I just crawl a little lower than everyone else I’ll be free and I don’t feel free I just feel worthless.  But verse 4 gives us the how-to.  This is the PURSUIT. This is where I get excited because it gives me something to do. I’m a doer!   Pursue the interests of others.

Isn’t this even what Paul is modeling for us? If I were sitting in a prison cell my letter would probably sound like this:  “I am cold, alone, forgotten, hungry, and miserable, AND now I hear that you sill petty people are bickering. Grow up you sissies!  I’m miserable here can’t you see. Can you please get busyand petition or something to get me free?” No, he chooses to take his eyes off himself and his circumstances and turns to the good and interests of others.  That is freedom.  This is how we think about ourselves less. Then, little by little, we begin to lose ourselves, we begin to taste freedom.

To continue with this analogy, freedom comes when we lay down this burden of self.  And while we’ve sort of identified that burden as pride, Tozer says that there are 3 forms of this that we are freed from when we pursue humility.

First, we are freed from pride:  We’ve already talked a lot about pride, but here are two more thoughts:

CS Lewis said this:  The pleasure of pride is like the pleasure of scratching.  If there is an itch one does want to scratch; but it is much nicer to have neither the itch nor the scratch.  As long as we have the itch of self-regard we shall want the pleasure of self-approval; but the happiest moments are those when we forget our precious selves and have neither but have everything else (God, our fellow humans, animals, the garden and sky) instead.

Humility, then is getting so engrossed in serving God and others, looking out for their interests, that we lose our precious selves.  And we find that we gain everything else in return.

Here’s one last interesting thought about pride, from John Piper: Because I think perhaps we can trick ourselves into thinking we’re not prideful, but check this out: Pride manifests itself in two ways: boasting, and self-pity. Check this out:

“[Boasting and Self-Pity] are manifestations of pride.  Boasting is the response of pride to success.  Self-pity is the response of pride to suffering.  Boasting says, “I deserve admiration because I have achieved so much.” Self-pity says, “I deserve admiration because I have sacrificed so much.”  Boasting is the voice of pride in the heart of the strong.  Self-pity is the voice of pride in the heart of the weak.  Boasting sounds self-sufficient.  Self-pity sounds self-sacrificing.  The reason self-pity does not look like pride is that it appears to be needy.  But the need arises from a wounded ego and the desire of the self-pitying is not really for others to see them as helpless, but heroes.  The need self-pity feels does not come from a sense of unworthiness, but from a sense of unrecognized worthiness.  It is the response of unapplauded pride.”

When we’re freed from pride, we’re freed from boasting and self-pity, we quit thinking of ourselves, and are freed from that itch of self-regard that we must constantly work to get scratched.  We’re freed to pursue others.

Second burden, we’re freed from is Pretense:  This is the idea of “putting your best foot forward.”  This is an obsession with what impression we are making.  I think this is a killer for women.  (wanting to stand on the left side in pictures so my scar doesn’t show!)  We constantly strive to look our best for others.  We tell stories in a certain light to make ourselves look good—here’s one I recently realized I was doing: (bargain bragging!).  We respond to “how are you doing” in a certain way, highlighting hardships or exaggerating how fatigued we are by our service for Christ.   I took a personality quiz once and scored high in “favorable image projection”.  Ouch. That’s a polite way of saying pretense.  And unfortunately this is so common to the way we live that we don’t even think of it as sin.

The third burden we’re freed from is Artificiality: This is similar to the hypocrisy that we studied last week.  Tozer says this:  Most people live in secret fear that some day they will be careless and by chance an enemy or friend will be allowed to peep into their poor, empty souls. So they are never relaxed.  Bright people are tense and alert in fear that they may be trapped into saying something common or stupid… Artificiality is one curse that will drop away the moment we kneel at Jesus’ feet and surrender ourselves to His meekness. Then we will not care what people think of us so long as God is pleased. Then what we are will be everything, what we appear will take its place far down the scale of interest for us. Apart from sin we have nothing of which to be ashamed.  Only an evil desire to shine makes us want to appear other than we are.”

Now here’s the tricky part. We refer to those things as burdens, right? But I would suggest that we actually use those burdens to hide.  How many of you have actually used your children to “hide”? (explain)  Because when we’re not secure in God’s love for us (v. 1) we’re insecure.  And when we’re insecure we turn inward and become focused on ourselves in pride and self-seeking, and we put up walls of pride, pretense, and artificiality because we somewhere deep down believe that same lie that was whispered to us in the garden—God doesn’t really love us.  But when we embrace God’s love, step out bravely and confidently in humility toward others, laying down these burdens, then we are vulnerable.  Humility and vulnerability go hand in hand.  And it is my opinion that vulnerability is one of the most beautiful qualities in life.  Women are by nature vulnerable beings, Scripture says (1 Peter 3).  And true vulnerability does not imply weakness, just as humility does not imply weakness. On the contrary, Christ displayed  the most humble, vulnerable life ever to walk the earth, and he was and is the God of the universe. And the secret to understanding what true humility looks like is to watch the greatest example.  Let’s look briefly at this example:  vv 5-8.

V 5-8:  Have this mind: The battle is in the mind, ladies. To grow in humility we must train our minds, to turn away from self and to have the mind of Christ.  This is totally contrary to our human nature, which always tends toward self.  Spiritual entropy.

Form of God.  This word “morphe” in the Greek means he was God in the very essence of His nature. Jesus Christ is God.  Confusing verse but basically though He was God, as he walked this earth as a man He didn’t grasp after divinity, he didn’t seek after displaying God-hood, but instead,

Made himself nothing, Remember “count” in verse 3—a conscious choice. Christ MADE himself nothing, the form of a servant.  And in human form –“ and this word is different than in v. 5 this is “schema” which means fashion or outward manifestation. God, Jesus Christ was in essence and nature God, but in outward manifestation man.

Humbled himself, to the point of death, even death on the cross.  The highest being lowered to the lowest low—death.  The God of the universe, hanging naked on a cross, with people spitting in his face.  He chose that.  You cannot humiliate the man who humbles himself.  God gives us the greatest example, so that no matter how talented, rich, successful, accomplished you are or become, and no matter how low God challenges you to stoop, He’s always made a greater jump. For the God of the universe to come to earth to die on a cross so that murderers, rapists, pedophiles, could be forgiven and set free, so I could be set free. That is humility.

And here’s what’s cool about this example:  This proves to us that it is not sin that humbles us.  We don’t get humble by sinning. The perfect example of humility was the sinless lamb of God. It is not sin that humbles us most, but grace.  It is a beautiful ongoing cycle—we humble ourselves and he gives grace (1 Peter 5), grace humbles us then as we’re humble God gives more grace.  That is freedom!  Freedom to quit performing, to quit measuring ourselves by each other, to quit fearing rejection and criticism, to quit centering our worlds around ourselves. Freedom to love, to risk, to step out in faith, to serve.  There is no fear in love but perfect love casts out fear. I pray that we would we brave enough to humble ourselves before each other, to be united in love, to be vulnerable.

Excerpts from a four-part Philippians series from this weekend’s WCC 20s ladies retreat.

Philippians 1: To Live is Christ (how we relate to our life)

Philippians 2: Christ our example (how we relate to others)

Philippians 3: Christ our goal (how we relate to the past and future)

Philippians 4: Christ our peace (how we relate to the present)

——

Thankfully, filling out the relationship portion of my Facebook bio was easy.  I am Married (check the box) to Jeff Patterson (type in J-e-f and watch his name and pic pop up).  Done.

But there’s another box on there that I think is funny, but also very accurate for describing many people’s relationship status.  After boxes for single, in a relationship, engaged, and married, there’s the box titled It’s complicated.

It is complicated sometimes, isn’t it? Not just Facebook relationship profiles, but life.  Life is complicated, and sometimes I would do anything to be able to check a box and place all the confusion neatly within the boundaries of four right angles.

Life feels complicated. And, in my opinion, especially life during the college and early career time of life. Early 20s.  Out of parents’ house, but not married.  Sort of suspended between youth and adulthood. Old enough to vote and drink, perhaps, but not quite ready to settle down.  The idea of a minivan and Mom-jeans is still a nightmare, but you wouldn’t mind if Mr. Wonderful came along and plopped a big diamond on your finger.  That seems like it would simplify everything.  As it is right now, it’s all just very very complicated.

I remember feeling like that when I was in the 18-23 window especially.  Guys were complicated. Classes and homework and school decisions were complicated. Friendships felt complicated. Family felt complicated. Huge decisions for my future and career felt complicated. Even church felt complicated.  For crying out loud, even what to eat felt complicated!  SO MANY considerations, all the time.

You know what the result is of having all those considerations? From having life become so complicated?  The result is a complete absence of JOY.  Complications steal our joy.

I believe this is especially hard during these young years of being single and making decisions that set the course of our entire lives.  We aren’t grounded by the simplicity of knowing our role as wife or mother (although I assure you that that brings with it a complication that is a whole new beast).  We see all decisions based on how they affect one person: me.  And yet, somehow that one-person is infinitely complicated isn’t she?  You see, living in a constant consideration of oneself is the most stressful, exhausting, and draining way to live.  That is complication.  And that is lack of joy.

The Apostle Paul was single.  And yet, he knew the secret to de-complicating life.  He knew the secret to simple living. And, as we’ll see throughout Philippians, he knew the secret to true joy.  He shares this secret in verse 21 of chapter 1:

For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain.

Well, that pretty much settles it then.

Of all of life’s considerations and concerns, life and death are the greatest, yes?  All the other worries of relationships, finances, future–they all come in secondary to the greatest human instinct which is survival.

Paul was in a situation where he wasn’t sure what the outcome would be: life or death.  There were certainly considerations–we see that in verses 22-26.  He had work to do, people to take care of. He had the gospel to preach.  But really, it all just came down to this:  Whatever will glorify God the most, that’s what I seek.  For to me to live is Christ.

So it’s all settled.  Not easy to live out, I assure you, but it can be settled once and for all.

To live is Christ. So, do I date this guy?  Well, does dating him help me to glorify God more than ever before? Does he make me want to grow with Christ? Does he challenge me to love God more? Does he challenge me to stay physically and emotionally pure? Does the aim of his life line up with the aim of my life, to serve God in all that we do? If so, sure! If not, don’t.

Should I move out on my own?  Will that enable me to trust and rely on God more? Is the desire to move out based on my selfishness or immaturity, because I haven’t matured to the point that I can submit to the authority of my parents?  Do I sense God leading me to move out by faith, so that I can grow in my relationship with Him?

These are all healthy considerations, because they are all variations of ONE consideration: Christ.  It doesn’t mean that everything becomes easy, but it does make everything world’s simpler.

This means that we work at our jobs for Christ. We budget our money for Christ. We go to college for Christ. We make friends for Christ.  We spend time with others for Christ.  We make decisions about our futures for Christ. He is it.  For us, to live is Christ.

The one reason why this will remain a struggle for us, is that we haven’t yet encountered the greatness of God in such a way that we cannot help but live for Him.  Because Christ is the most captivating, brilliant, and awe-inspiring being, the more we know Him the more we will love Him.  So, are we struggling with our ability to say that Christ is our life? Get to know Him a bit more. That’s why we’re spending these 3 days studying the whole book of Philippians. Because in it we see who Christ is.  And when we see Him we can’t help but proclaim that we truly do want Him to be our life.

*What are you wrestling with right now?  How can you apply this, to live is Christ, to your situation right now?