Hello siblings
It is a great day to praise the Lord. We remain on God’s wake-up list, though some of us mourn loved ones – immediate and past. Through it all, I encourage us to remain joyous. For, with God, even the most untenable situation can be overcome. You’re not too sure about what I’m proposing – well, consider Today’s Holy Nougat.
Philippians 4:4 NIV
[4] Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!
Always and Forever
Recently I’ve been struck by two sister friends where I heard others commending them for being serene and unflappable. They accredited their serenity to God’s grace. As I rejoiced in their testimony, a little part of me thought that I’d also love for that to be MY testimony. That desire was followed by a recognition that I can be like that … as soon as I shift some of my perspectives and attitudes.
Self-Check
Are there some perspectives that would need to be shifted in your life to have such a visible testimony?
Digging Deeper
As I’ve been pondering the paradigm shift needed, it registered that there were two women through whose lives I could find some guidance. In his closing words to the Philippian church, Paul implored two sisters to make peace (‘be of the same mind in the Lord’) with each other. He celebrated, rather, commended then for their ministry alongside Clement and others – they were faithful believers like you and me.
Even as he commended them, Paul asked his faithful companion to guide them through the process, and we sense that the call then to always rejoice could have been part of the counsel offered. The imperative ‘rejoice‘ is what immediately follows. Chairó, the Greek expression, invites Paul’s audience to be joyful. But chairó, pronounced kairo, is also used as a farewell greeting. Could it also be suggesting that Paul was urging them to leave each other with the joy of the Lord? We note that the command is not so much about being happy with each other, it’s about being happy in the Lord.
Hence when we get to HELPS Word-studies, which suggests that chairó is about being favourably disposed toward someone or something, we can see how their joy in the Lord would realise grace toward each other.
Paul’s request is that they (and by extension, us) are to be in that state of grace always. This is so important to Paul that he repeats it. Siblings, he demands that as believers, even when we can’t see eye to eye, we must end and start our journey with God’s grace – to ourselves, to others, to God, and from God.
We do not know how Euodia and Syntyche’s stories ended, but the testimony of the two women whom I know assure us that we can change our trajectory if we’re not already visibly living this joy in the Lord. Might I urge us therefore siblings
Always and forever, rejoice in the Lord!
Point to Ponder
Is there someone to whom we need to extend God’s grace as we have received of it?
Should we also be praying for particular believers, and leading by example?
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May all we seek be found in Christ
