So in Philippians 4, last week we talked through verses 2 through 9, and Paul moves from sweeping themes of chapter 3, pressing on, standing firm, to grounding us in a call for a gospel-shaped life together in the church.
So he begins by addressing, if you recall, a fracture that happened between Judea and Syntyche, and their urge to agree in the Lord, not by pretending necessarily that nothing happened, but by bringing their minds and their affections under Christ.
So their unity matters because their conflict threatens the peace and the witness of the congregation.
So Paul then widens the lens to the whole church, rejoicing the Lord, let gentleness mark you, and replace your anxiousness with prayerful dependence.
So he calls believers to bring everything to God, and that it would be requests, burdens, fears, and even thanksgiving, and promises that the God of peace will guard hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
So finally, Paul presses further and beyond the prayer and to daily habits.
So he pleads with us that we would think on what is true, what is honorable, what is just, what is pure, what is lovely, what is commendable.
Then practice what you've learned, and what you've seen in me, how Paul has displayed that.
So Christian peace is not passive, it's cultivated through prayer, and reflection, and walking in step with Christ.
So tonight we're in verses 10 through 23, as we close this out, and Paul begins to close the letter by speaking to the Philippians their generosity.
And not only their generosity, but their gospel partnership that they had with him.
So he expresses a sincere joy in their renewed care, but he also lifts their eyes beyond that.
The gift itself is what to reveal is a Christ-shaped contentment in every circumstance.
And he's proud, and he's thankful for this gospel-shaped and shared investment in advancing the gospel that he labored for so much.
So this final section will leave us with Paul's testimony of an all-sufficient Christ, and the worshipful nature of sacrificial giving, and the promise that God will supply his people's needs.
So again, three points as usual.
Verses 10 through 13, Thanksgiving for gospel partnership, worship through generosity, verses 14 through 20, and grace to the whole church, verses 21 through 23.
So let us begin, Thanksgiving for gospel partnership.
Paul says in verse 10, I rejoice in the Lord greatly, that now at length you have received your concern for me.
You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity, but you had no opportunity.
Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.
I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound.
In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.
I could do all things through him who strengthens me.
So verses 10 through 20 function as Paul's extended thank you to the Philippians for their generous support during his hardship.
But even as Paul expresses a sincere gratitude, Paul is careful to clarify the source of his joy.
It's not their money, per se, so he doesn't want him to think that his rejoicing is driven by a relentless or need, though Christ were not enough until their gift arrived.
The gift wasn't his joy, it's Christ.
So beneath that thank you note, Paul quietly teaches an example.
What looks like to be deeply, steadily content in the Lord Jesus, whatever that circumstance may be, we are to be content in knowing Christ, even in hardship.
So Paul begins to draw his letter to a close in verse 10 with a very personal word.
He says, I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at length you have received your concern for me.
You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity.
So you can kind of hear his warmth here, right? His pastoral heart.
Paul isn't scolding them necessarily for a delay of them sending a gift.
He's recognizing their love and the providence that God finally opened the door for them to help.
So in the opening line, also ties right back to what he just commanded in his previous section.
Rejoice in the Lord.
So as we've seen, Christian joy isn't the denial of hardship.
No matter what the circumstances, it's the steady confidence that Christ will keep his promises.
It's knowing that, it's holding on to that, it's trusting in Christ's promises.
So we can rejoice not because circumstances are easy, but because God finishes what he starts.
God is faithful.
He's good.
The God who began a good work in his people will carry it through to completion on the day of Jesus Christ.
That's why joy can survive both plenty and want.
That's what Paul is getting at, through peace and pressure.
So even now, as citizens of heaven, we live with our minds and our hearts awaiting for the Savior and anchored by a hope that cannot be shaken.
So Paul's joy here doesn't stop at the Philippians' gift.
It essentially rises through the gift to the God who stands behind it.
One commentator, Gordon Fee, notes, Paul's thanksgiving is deliberate.
He said, in the Lord, because what he ultimately celebrates is not money in his hands, but grace at work in the hearts.
So in other words, when the gift arrives, Paul refuses to let his delight terminate on the gift itself.
See, he recognizes it as the Lord's own provision, given through the loving hands of the church.
See, this is another testimony to Paul's trust in God's sovereign care.
The Lord supplies his children often through his people.
You and I can be so thankful for that, that a loving church and members would provide for us in a need.
And that's the same heart that we should have.
See, what Paul is celebrating here, he did receive a gift.
And he receives this gift as genuine love and thoughtful care.
But he refuses to let his gratitude just stop with the Philippians.
See, he traces their kindness back to God.
It's God at work among them.
It's God using them to bless him.
So their giving is not merely human kindness.
It's a visible fruit of grace.
Sacrificial giving, when we give sacrificially, it's a visible sign of fruit, of God showing grace in our life.
So when believers hold Christ as their treasure, their grip on lesser treasure is loosened.
And the gospel is strengthened through joyful sacrifice.
And that's how Jesus is put on display.
So if you want Christ to be honored, pursue a heart that is satisfied in him.
And let the satisfaction show itself in open-handed generosity.
So poured out for the good of the saints and the spread of the gospel.
So in verse 11, Paul says, not that I'm speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.
So the word content can describe self-sufficiency or independence.
In other words, I don't need anything else in order to be satisfied.
You see, Paul here did not want the Philippians to assume that his joy rose and fell because of finances.
The letter itself proves otherwise.
See, Philippians is saturated with joy.
And it was written when Paul was in captivity.
So if anyone could claim an excuse for despair, it was Paul.
Paul was in prison writing this letter.
Yet his rejoicing did not come from being in comfortable circumstances, but from his secure standing in, knowing that he was saved by God.
Christ.
See even behind bars he was convinced that God's purposes were advancing in his life.
Just because he was in prison does not mean the gospel stopped.
And that reality mattered more to him than any change in his outward condition.
So no matter what is happening around him and whatever is being done to him, his contentment remained steady.
As he explains in verse 12, he had experienced the full range of circumstances.
Seasons of abundance and seasons of need.
Days of ease and days of affliction.
Yet the shifting tides did not dictate the state of his soul.
His soul was anchored in Christ.
He was not ruled by his situation.
You see in every condition his joy and satisfaction were anchored in the reality that circumstances could not reach or disrupt.
His soul and heart and mind and focus was anchored in his union in Christ.
That was his source of joy.
So contentment means learning how to live faithfully when you and I are brought low.
So clinging to hope and trusting that God is able to sustain you and in his time lift you up.
But it also means learning to live wisely when life isn't pleasant.
When we are tempted to be prideful in self-reliance, remembering that seasons of ease are gifts.
They are gifts of grace and they're not guarantees of permanent comfort.
So in fact prosperity can be in a sense a subtler test than adversity.
So God may grant good times as merciful or as a foretaste of the gore-de-camp, but they can also tempt us to be prayerless and independent on our own strengths.
So ask yourself, do you see God more earnestly when life is hard? Do you seek God more earnestly when life is smooth, when things are going easy? The secret Paul has learned is this, whether life is pleasant or painful, whether he is well-fed or hungry, his joy does not hang in the balance of his circumstances.
His happiness and satisfaction are anchored in Christ.
You see, Paul labored diligently, but he understood that his deepest stability and everything truly he needed to endure in life was found not in what life handed him, but in Jesus Christ.
If you're familiar with the Puritan Jeremiah Burroughs, he wrote a book called the Rear Jewel of Christian Contentment, and he says, if I become content by having my desires satisfied, that is only self-love.
But when I'm contended with the hand of God and I'm willing to be at his disposal, that comes from my love to God.
See, Philippians 4.12 is Paul's opening his heart and letting the Philippians see what contentment looks like when it has been tested over time.
He says, I've been brought low, I know how to abound.
In other words, he has walked through both extremes, and seasons full and seasons less, and neither one gets to be lord over his soul.
See, Paul doesn't pretend that hunger is easy or that abundance is dangerous in every respect.
He simply refuses to let either circumstances define him.
Commentator Dennis Johnson points out, Paul is describing a distinctly Christian kind of stability.
Contentment that is learned as Christ trains his people through changing providences, teaching them to receive both want and plenty with faith rather than fear.
See, most of our unrest comes from believing we can't be okay unless life is going a certain way.
We think we need less pressure, we think we need more money, better health, fewer problems, or more control, and then we'll finally have peace.
Everything will be hunky-dory.
Have finally have peace we have all this stuff See Paul says the Lord can teach you a better way He can steady you when you you're brought low.
So you don't collapse into bitterness or panic and He can steady you when you have plenty so you don't drift into pride So you don't drift in prayerlessness or self-reliance See contentment guys is not It's it's not pretending circumstances don't matter It's learning to live in every circumstance without being mastered by it Because your life is held and provided for and governed by Christ So look at verse 13 I Can do all things through him who strengthens me See in this verse, it's so cherished and even taken out of context by God's people through the ages Paul declares that he is able to face Whatever the Lord calls him to because God himself Supplies the strength so in context it's clear that Paul is saying he can walk Through every kind of season well fed or hungry abundance or need Well-fed or hungry abundance or need and remain steady with true contentment you see the point of this verse is That Christian contentment does not come from favorable conditions But from the sustaining strength of our Savior It's not that I Can do all things through him who strengthens me and I can get all the money or I can get whatever job I want No, it's having the contentment That it's God who strengthens me Remember Philippians 3 verses 10 through 11.
He said he wanted to know Christ not in theory, but in reality knowing the power of his resurrection and sharing in his suffering as He is conformed to Christ all the way to the hope of the resurrection See here in chapter 4 Paul is showing what that looks like When life is hard and when life is easy See Christ's resurrection power is not a religious slogan It is living the living strength by which God sustains his people in real circumstances and That's why the secret is not a shallow principle like Jesus can help you do your best if you ask him See Lawson is careful here Paul is not offering spiritual.
He's not offering a spiritual motivational talk he is pointing believers to the risen Christ as the true source of stability and Endurance the resurrection is God's public declaration that Christ reigns with power over sin death and Everything Threatening every threatening circumstance and that's saying that same power is that work to strengthen Christ's people For whatever obedience suffering or faithfulness God calls them to in that moment in other words the secret to enduring trials and staying humble and steady in good times is remembering what union with Christ means What does that mean you belong to him? You share in his death and resurrection and you are learning day By day to live by the power of the one who died for you and now lives for you That is the strength that makes contentment possible You want to learn the secret of content contentment Remember your union with Christ and trust in that So, where does this strength come from how can a believer receive The kind of n-word supply that studies our souls So that contentment is possible No matter the circumstance it comes as we lay hold of the privileges of our union with Christ and live in daily communion with him as We draw near to him by faith Remembering that you and I belong to him Resting in his promises leaning on his presence.
He supplies what we do not have in ourselves And this is not a self-made Resilience it is Christ sharing his strength with his people as they abide in him See Paul's contentment Doesn't diminish his gratitude it deepens it So now that Paul has made this clear That Christ is his sufficiency.
He now turns to honor the Philippians through their generosity and shows them what their giving truly was, an act of worship and a fragrant offering to the Lord.
Let's look at verses 14 through 20.
Worship through generosity.
Verse 14, yet it was kind of you to share my trouble.
And you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving, except you only.
Even in Thessalonica, you sent me help for my needs once again, needs once and again.
Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit.
I've received full payment and more.
I am well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God.
And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus.
To our God and Father be forever, amen.
So in verse 14, Paul adds a warm affirmation.
He says, yet it was kind of you to share in my trouble.
You see, he wants them to know their gift and their love and concern and prayers behind it truly matter to him.
And by sending support, the Philippians were not merely meeting necessarily a practical need, they were stepping into Paul's affliction and becoming partners with him in it.
See, their generosity served as a visible pledge of solidarity.
They stood with Paul, identified with him, and supported his gospel labor even while he suffered.
The same pattern continues today, right? Look at the missionaries that we support, the churches that we support.
When churches provide for missionaries and gospel workers in seasons of unusual need, sharing in their burdens as fellow laborers for the sake of Christ.
See, Paul intentionally frames their generosity not as a donation, but as a fellowship, true partnership in the work of the gospel.
Look at verses 15 through 16.
And you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving except you only.
Even in Thessalonica, you sent me help for my needs once again.
When Paul says in the beginning of the gospel, he is referring to the earliest days when the gospel first took root in Philippi.
So Acts 16, if you go back, records how Paul arrived with his companion and preached to a small gathering at a place of prayer where Lydia heard the word and believed, marking the first fruits of what would become the Philippian church.
So the initial work soon widened through further conversations, including the Philippian jailer.
And as the congregation formed and matured, they began to support Paul financially and standing with him in a way other churches did not.
So Paul's language highlights not merely the timing of their support, but its exceptional character.
The Philippians distinguished themselves by entering into a genuine partnership with Paul's gospel mission, even when they were comparatively alone in doing so.
So after leaving Philippi, Paul traveled on to Thessalonica, where the Lord used him to help establish another church.
But if you recall, he countered resistance there.
So Jewish opponents stirred up a mob and provoked public turmoil in the city.
That's Acts 17.
Later, when Paul settled in Corinth for a season, the Philippians stood out as the only congregation that continued to support him.
So their ongoing partnership reveals the depth and the bond reflected throughout this letter.
See, these brothers and sisters were true partner in his gospel mission.
See, Paul is eager to make sure that the Philippians don't misunderstand his heart.
He wants them to know his heart.
He wants them to know that he is grateful.
He is grateful for what they sent, but he doesn't want them to think that he's chasing after their money.
What delights him the most is not the gift, in a sense, in his hands, but the grace of work in their hearts.
That's why you can say in verse 17, not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit.
You see, their generosity is evidence that the gospel has truly taken root, producing faith that is alive and maturing and willing to be part with earth, willing to apart from earthly security because Christ has become their treasure.
And Paul wants them to feel the comfort of this.
You see, when believers give freely for the sake of Christ, it's never wasted.
It's a kind of spiritual fruit that the Lord himself notices and delights in, fruit that will not be forgotten.
This is not the prosperity gospel that I'm talking about.
Give so you can get rich.
It's the gospel of grace.
God has already been generous to us in Christ, and that generosity begins to shape what you love and trust.
So Paul encourages them.
Your giving is a sign that your faith is growing stronger, that your confidence is shifting from what you can hold into your hands to what God has promised to you and his son.
You see, Paul wants the Philippians to understand that he isn't hinting at more or trying to profit from their kindness.
When he says, I have received full payment and more, I am well supplied, he's essentially telling them, I'm not trying to get rich off you.
I truly have everything I need.
As the commentator Osborne notes, Paul's deepest interest is not the gift itself, but the spiritual fruit it represents, fruit that increases to your credit because their generosity is evidence of grace that works in their life.
Then Paul lifts their eyes even higher by shifting into the language of worship.
He says, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice, acceptable and a pleasing to God.
You see, this image of fruit points to God as the source of what they were able to give.
The image of sacrifice points to God as a recipient of what they have given.
See, yes, Paul benefits from the gift.
He is strengthened and sustained by it.
Just as the priests in the Old Testament were permitted to partake of portions of the offerings for their daily needs, but Paul's point is bigger than this.
God supplied you so that you could give, and God receives your giving as worship, and Paul receives the provision, but the Lord receives the praise.
Do you see that? See, when Paul promises, my God will supply all your needs, the you is not a generic reference to everyone everywhere.
You see, in context, he is speaking directly to these believers who had sacrificially supported him.
Paul's point is covenantal and pastoral because they have shared in gospel work through their generous giving.
They can confidently entrust themselves to God's care.
The Lord who enabled the generosity will not neglect them.
He will provide what they truly need, including their materialistic needs, as they continue to seek his kingdom and invest in the advance of the gospel.
So Paul assures them, my God will supply every good need of yours according to his riches in the glory in Christ.
Notice what he does and does not say.
He doesn't say, your generosity will ultimately secure you, or better circumstances will take care of you.
He says, my God, the God he has trusted in hardship, the God who has never failed him, will personally provide for them in every way they truly need.
Our God provides for us abundantly.
He's reminding the Philippians that the God who saved them will also sustain them.
And that is exactly what Jesus gives in Matthew 6.
Don't be consumed with anxious questions about food, drink, or clothing.
Set your heart on God's kingdom and righteousness and trust your Father to add what you need.
To add what you need.
You see, Paul is applying that same promise here.
Gospel generosity is not a leap into the dark because the God who gives.
Grace is also he also gives provision.
Beloved we are called to live with open hands because we belong to an open-handed God.
He has ravishly given us His grace.
He has not dealt with us sparingly.
He has been lavish in His mercy, giving His own Son to rescue us, to forgive us, to bring us home.
So Christian generosity is not a virtue that you and I should admire from a distance.
It's a grace we're meant to practice as a people who have been loved so deeply.
It should be the posture of our heart.
You see that's what you see in Philippians.
They gave freely and sacrificially, not because Paul had somehow earned it, not because they wanted recognition, and not because they felt pressure.
No, Paul wasn't like their mob boss.
They gave because Christ had become their treasure and love overflowed into action.
And when we live like that, our generosity becomes a testimony.
What is that testimony? My security is not in what I can store up, but in the Lord who provides.
It's one of the most tangible ways that you and I can show our neighbors, and even how it can impact our own anxious hearts, that we trust God more than money and we want others to taste that same kindness that we've received.
So in verse 20, just before he turns to his final greeting, Paul lifts the whole passage into doxology.
He says, to our God and Father be glory forever and ever.
Amen.
It's as if he gathers up everything that he's already said about partnership and provision and contentment and generosity, and he directs it where it ultimately belongs, to the glory of God.
You see, the highest aim of everything that you and I do in our life is to the glory of God.
Our lives are meant to display his worth, to make his name known, and to reflect that he is our greatest treasure.
Beloved, when God's glory becomes our driving passion, our priorities realign around his kingdom, and our deepest desire becomes this, that his fame would be honored and spread throughout the entire world.
You see, his point is that the gospel doesn't merely forgive, it transforms.
It gives grace to love and serve Christ, to give freely to those in need, even to receive rightly, not as someone that's desperate or clinging for security, but as believers rejoicing to see God at work in the lives of others.
And when grace produces that kind of life, the end result is always doxology.
It's always praise.
And God is the fountain of every good gift we ever offer, and God is the final aim of every act of obedience we ever render.
All glory belongs to him now and forever.
So even in our sanctification, our growth, our giving, our following Christ where he leads us, becomes a pathway back to praising him and worshiping him.
From start to finish, it is of God and for God.
Therefore, we should gladly join Paul in saying, to the Father, through the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be glory forever and ever.
You see, Paul wants them to see that the gospel doesn't merely save us.
It changes us.
It gives us grace to love his people.
It gives us the grace to give.
And we need to understand that all glory belongs to him.
So Paul moves from doxology to goodbye.
Greetings to the saints and a final word of grace.
Paul now turns to his final greeting, extending grace and affection to the entire church.
So verses 21 through 23, grace to the whole church.
I greet every saint in Christ Jesus, the brothers who are with me greet you, all the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar's household.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.
So Paul in verse 21 through 22 moves from doxology to a tender close.
See, this is the second movement of his closing words.
He ends in worship, then he ends in love.
He writes, greet every saint in Christ Jesus, the brothers who are with me greet you, all the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar's household.
So in other words, after lifting our eyes to God's glory, Paul turns and strengthens the family bonds that grace creates.
See, these greetings are the sound or the sound of the church being church.
Real affection flowing from real union with Christ.
Guys, they are the warm overflow of real fellowship with Christ.
Again, Dennis Johnson notes that Paul's closing lines are deliberately pastoral.
He wants the Philippians to feel that they are not isolated, not forgotten, and not alone in their stand for the gospel.
You know, when you slow down, you can hear the pulse of Paul's affection and the repeated call to greet.
First, the church in Philippi is urged to greet every single saint.
No one is overlooked.
No believer treated as insignificant.
Then Paul adds that the brothers with him send their greetings.
And in verse 22, he widens the circle even more.
He says all the saints in Rome greet them as well, especially those of Caesar's household.
See, even in the heart of the empire, Christ is gathering his people, and it's proof that the gospel is advancing and the world and the word is not bound.
It is a threefold reminder that the gospel doesn't merely reconcile sinners to God, it binds believers to one another, knitting together a local congregation into one shared fellowship under one Savior.
See, Paul speaks in the first person, and it's over 120 times specifically in this letter.
He calls the Philippians his brethren, his beloved, his joy and crown of rejoicing on the day of Christ.
See, that personal language is not accidental.
It reflects a relationship forged in real gospel partnership.
They had stood with him in difficult times, even supporting him when other churches did not, and they shared labor produced more than cooperation.
It produced deep affection.
And you can hear it early in the letter when Paul says it is right for him to feel this way about them, because they are in his heart.
And when he testifies that he longs for them with the affection of Christ Jesus, you see, those repeated greetings aren't the kind of words you skim past.
They're Paul reminding the church, you are loved, you are remembered, and you're not alone.
The gospel doesn't just reconcile you and I to God.
It binds us together as one.
It holds us together.
It stains us together with a love that feels like a family.
It's deeper than that.
He's reminding us that the church is meant to be a place where people are truly known and truly loved, because Christ has made us one.
In Christ, we don't just share doctrine, we share life.
And that shared life should naturally spill over into tangible warmth, into gentleness, into family-like affection.
And Paul ends the letter with how he began it, with grace.
Look at verse 23.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you with your spirit.
See, this is not just a polite closing line that life would make your life feel easier.
It's Paul's final most precious request for them.
That the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ would be with them in a living and abiding way that's near and active, governing the whole of their inner life.
In other words, he's praying for what Lloyd-Jones calls the greatest blessing imaginable.
That Christ's grace would be present with them.
and quietly and steadily controlling their spirits, shaping what they love, steadying what they trust, and empowering how they live.
Beloved, the reason that all this is true is that grace is the sum and substance of the Christian life.
Grace is how we began and how we continue and how we finish.
From first to last, our salvation rests entirely on God's Son, on God's undeserved favor in Jesus Christ.
Our justification is by grace.
Our sanctification is sustained by grace.
Our glorification will be the final triumph of grace.
There's no boasting.
There should be no room for boasting.
We do not earn God's acceptance.
We do not supply our own spiritual strength.
And we do not take the credit for any lasting good in us.
Left to ourselves, we have no moral resources to bring to God, no righteousness to offer, no power to change our own hearts, and no ability to stand.
If we are to be saved and kept and brought home, everything must come to us as a gift, given freely by God through Christ.
So how do you and I respond to Paul's closing words? See, if grace is the beginning and end of the Christian life, and if that grace creates real family bonds in the church, then this isn't just a closing that we just admire.
It should be our life.
And if Paul's final prayer is that the grace of Christ would be with our spirits, then our application is to live as people who actually believe that grace is near and that it's sufficient in shaping everything.
So with that in mind, let's turn to application.
So, Paul keeps bringing the Philippians back to the promises that steadies everything.
The God who began His work in you will not abandon it.
He will finish it at the day of Christ.
On that foundation, Paul calls the church to stand firm and rejoice, whether the season is bright or dark.
God has already given His Son and united us to Him by faith, so that the power that raised Jesus is not a distant truth, but a present reality for us.
We endure by fixing our hearts on these certainties, learning to do all things through Christ who strengthened us, not by self-confidence, but by gospel confidence.
That's how anxiety is quieted in our life, and needs are entrusted to God.
And that's how contentment becomes possible.
You see, in this gospel confidence should reshape our generosity.
If God did not spare His own Son, we can trust Him to provide what we truly need.
And that should free us to hold our resources with open hands.
That's what shines in the Philippians.
They gave sacrificially and freely, not to earn anything, but because grace had loosened their grip on earthly security.
Paul ends with glory to God and grace to the church.
The shape of the Christian life, grace received, obedience lived, generosity expressed, and God exalted.
So practice contentment this week.
And you can do it in two simple ways.
Name one if only.
And what do I mean by if only? If only this was better, or this was easier.
If only I had this.
What do you do with that? You turn it into prayer.
You turn it into prayer with thanksgiving.
And then you take it a step further.
Then you bless someone intentionally.
Give, serve, encourage.
Beloved, because of God's ordinary ways of breaking our old and breaking the hold of discontent is to move us onward in love toward giving and serving and blessing others.
Would you pray with me?
