Philippians 4:11
IT’S ALMOST SUNDAY DEVOTIONS
Not that I speak in respect of want for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.
I may need a doctor to prescribe me medicine. A head shrink or even just a good prayer vigil. Even just a good old boy with some advice on how to solve my problems. You see I have something in my life that I must admit is a real problem. So here it is. This is my problem…
I cannot stand to look at crooked things or off-centered items. Now wait before you call me weird. Things like pictures hanging unlevel on the walls can keep me up at night. This past week I was in a hotel room and there was a picture on the wall that was hanging off the center. I tried my best not to look at it, but it was next to me, staring at me while I was trying to study. It was calling out to me saying please fix me. Please straighten me up because housekeeping is not going to. Please help! I could not take it anymore. I gave in. After all, it was calling me. I got up from my desk and took out my level app on my phone and I got that picture perfectly centered. It makes me feel so much better to tell someone this. My name is David, and I have a problem with uncentered things.
I should learn more from our above verse. I should read it again. The apostle Paul tells us that he himself had learned something. You must realize that when we have learned something that means we have the right amount of experience to make a comment. Paul certainly had the experience. He had been beaten, put in prison, shipwrecked, stoned, kidnapped, and many times hungry, thirsty, and cold. Even a thorn in the flesh that God never removed. This was a man with experience. That qualified him to say, “For I have learned.”
But then he tells us what he has learned. That wherever his life is to just be content. That word means to be satisfied. Paul was saying that I have learned no matter where my life is that I am satisfied. When I was beaten, I was satisfied. When I was in prison, I was satisfied. When I was stoned, I was satisfied. When I was kidnapped, I was satisfied. When I talked about my thorn in the flesh it was ok because I was satisfied. Can I just stop right there and say, well Glory to God.” Thank you, Paul, for your lessons learned.
So how does this happen? How did Paul conclude that it did not matter what was going on in his life? That was not even important during his circumstances. How could he conclude that he would be satisfied in every area of his life no matter what? Are you ready for it? Here it is…
Jesus Christ was in the middle of his life. Thats right. Jesus Christ was not off centered or even outside looking in. Paul had made Jesus his center. And because of this he knew God was the one that would handle any circumstance that may be or arise in his life. As a Christian we are the only ones that can hand off to God our crazy situations and it still be ok. An unsaved person can never know what it feels like to be satisfied through it all. But we do. Why? Because we have learned in whatsoever state we are in to be content (satisfied).
I lost the battle with the picture in my hotel room, but I have not lost the battle with this world. In fact, the battle had already been won the day I got saved. So, what is your story today? Who is in your center? Because centers tell the whole story.
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