What guards your heart? In Phillipians 4:4-7 we see an interesting mix of words used together. Rejoice, peace, anxious, Thanksgiving. In verse 7, Paul indicates that the peace of God will guard our hearts in Christ Jesus. I don’t typically think of Peace as being something that is active like that. Peace generally has a more passive feel to it. We rest in peace. We experience peace. Now that peace actually guards us. Yet, if we read through those verses, we understand that while we are rejoicing in the Lord and we are bringing our anxious thoughts and worries to him, we can experience his peace. Additionally his peace is…

Unity in Christ is so important. Philippians 4:1-3 is where Paul reminds the people of the importance of having a unified mind together in Christ. Paul uses the verses to remind the women of that importance. They have been able to accomplish great things together with him when they were focused on Jesus Christ and him alone. When that is our sole goal and purpose, we can accomplish exactly what God has for us. When we get distracted and start focusing on other things, that is when we become ineffective in our walk and our service for Christ. How effective are we being? If you don’t feel you’re being very…

Philippians 3, starting in verse 15, goes through the end of the chapter and speaks about our citizenship. Where do we find our home? We are to be a reflection of our home, and Paul wants us to understand that our citizenship is in heaven. If we have accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior then we no longer belong to this world. We now belong to Heaven and our actions and attitudes should be reflection of our citizenship. When other people travel abroad, often we can tell where they are from or what part of the world or a country they come from originally. We can see them through…

Philippians 3:12-14 explains Paul’s goal. He is completely and totally sold out to seeking Christ. He talks about forgetting what is behind and moving toward what is ahead. As we go through our day today Christian walk, do we forget what is behind us? Many times we don’t forget, we try to push to the side. We push to the side the ideas of success and money and power and all those things that we used to define ourselves in this world. But, we don’t completely forget about them. Every so often then they come up and we go back to them and cling to them instead of recognizing that…

Philippines 3:1-11 shares with us some interesting ideas about Paul’s background. He starts off by telling us to rejoice and the importance of rejoicing and everything. He tells us to rejoice and says that he will tell us that several times. We often need a reminder about rejoicing because when we are going through difficult things we forget that God has called us to rejoice in him. Then Paul goes on to explain his background, his heritage. He grew up knowing and understanding the rituals of what it took to please God. And he did all of them. Yet he still found himself not meeting God’s expectations. No matter what…

Finishing out Philippines chapter 2, starting in verse 19, Paul goes on to explain how the people around him, he will be sending to Philippi very soon. He mentions two people that will be able to go and bring joy to Paul by ministering in his place. Paul was in jail, yet he is thinking about ways to bring joy to the people. He mentions that Timothy also is more interested in bringing joy to the people than his own comfort. Do we focus on the needs of others more than our own needs? Are we aware of the need to glorify God, regardless of the personal results?  God is…

When reading the next section, Philippians 2:12-18, verse 14 always stands out to me. Do everything without complaining or arguing. That verse by itself flies in the face of everything that we do in our culture today. We complain about things not being fast enough. We complain about how were treated. We complain about things we don’t have. We complain about relationships. We complain about the weather. We complain about anything and everything we can think of. Yet this is not how God desires for us to spend our time. Everything we do should be done in a spirit and an attitude of Thanksgiving recognizing that the sacrifices that we…

As we went through Philippines 2:5-11, we get a glimpse into who Jesus Christ truly is. The enormity of the sacrifice that he made coming to Earth to live amongst us becomes very apparent when we see him full of Glory, high and lifted up, exalted above all others. Jesus Christ has the name that is above every other name and yet he chose to humble himself, come to Earth, and be the sacrifice to restore the relationship between us and God. The very first verse, verse 5, tells us that we are to have the same mindset as Jesus. If that’s the case, then no matter our position, we…

Philippines 2:1-4 is such an interesting set of verses. In it, we see how God moves people to unity and how unity leads to humility. When we think we’re better than others, then we won’t be unified with them. If we think others are better than us, then we won’t feel worthy to be unified with them. If we will see each and every one of us as equal through the blood of Jesus, then our unity of purpose and unity of focus becomes nothing less than the will of God in our lives. We have no issues with humility because we desire for Christ to be made much of,…

“To live is Christ and to die is gain.” This great statement made by Paul in Philippines 1:21 is the start of a section through the end of the chapter that shows Paul’s great dilemma. He desires to be with God in heaven, but he also knows the importance his witness and testimony is to those still living. While he is still living, he wants to hear of the faithfulness of the people he has led to Christ. Who have we influenced? Do we provide encouragement to other by how we serve God? Do we seek that kind of encouragement from others? Do we really understand that while we are…