I Can Do It ALL!
"I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret to being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength."
- Philippians 4:11-13 | ||
You've probably heard the term "life verse". A Bible verse that speaks to you personally over all the others. One that means more to your own personal journey. Mine has always been Philippians 4:13. I am such a weak, wishy-washy person, that I have been able to accomplish little on my own. After many years I finally learned that if I let "Jesus Take the Wheel", I get along so much better. Things still don't always go the way I have planned, but everything is better when He's in charge. Anyway, I was listening to Pastor Rick Warren, the author of "The Purpose Driven Life". Rick is also senior pastor/founder of Saddleback Church, a megachurch in Lake Forest, California. Last spring, Rick lost his youngest son to suicide. Anyway, Rick "happened" to be speaking on this passage in Philippians. As most good pastors do, however, he was not taking 4:13 out of context. He was reading the verse within the passage listed above. This message helped me to further understand why it is so important to read the context of verses in the Bible. After reading the scripture, Pastor Warren highlighted one word in the passage: learned.
Basically what he said was this: Paul is saying in order to find out how important it is to depend on Christ, we have to go through a learning process. We don't just automatically decide upon salvation we need Christ to be with us through every part of life. We just don't get that at all. We have been taught in our culture to work hard, be self-sufficient, put on our "big girl panties" and deal with it. Here's where the word "learned" comes in.
How do we learn, anyway? As a teacher of young children for many years, I can tell you how most of us learn the best. We learn by experiencing. Young children are very 'concrete' learners. This means they must see, feel, touch, hear, and sometimes smell real things in order to learn about them. This is why you see so many seemingly unusual activities going on in young children's classrooms. They don't get 'abstract' concepts, those they can't experience first-hand. I think there are many more adults that need this type of learning than we thought. Dr. Warren was saying in order to know we need Christ to experience life's events THROUGH, we must experience those events and LEARN how much we need Him.
I had never thought of it that way before. But I really get it now. I have always been a 'slow learner' particularly about emotional/social things. Based on a false sense of pride, I thought I could bull my way through anything. That if I was right, it would be ok. That I could work it out. Well, God knew better. In His love and grace, He took me through a learning curve. I have mentioned before how I was taken through event after event, still remaining stubborn and feeling self-sufficient. God had to take me all the way down, to a terribly frightening, life-changing event before I finally learned what He was trying to teach me.
You see Philippians 4:13 doesn't mean what I thought it did. I thought it was just talking about difficult addictions. I can quit smoking through Christ who strengthens me. I can quit drinking in excess through Christ who strengthens me. I can quit gossiping through Christ who strengthens me. But, in context, these verses go much deeper than that. Through experiences God takes us through, we LEARN we can do ALL things through Him. From the most mundane to that life-changing traumatic moment, we can do all of them with Him. Even the most horrible event you can imagine for yourself can be handled ....through Him. I learned I HAD to have Him to survive that one event. No way could I do it without Him. I would perish. And I did make it, with Christ picking me up and carrying me through it. Then, after I LEARNED that, I also LEARNED any and ALL other events in my life could be accomplished much better through Him. I need His strength through all of it....the everyday events to the 'end of the world' events. I need Him right there with me through it all.
Pastor Warren learned it too. I know losing his son was the most devastating loss of his life. But God brought him through that event, and he LEARNED he could even survive that through Christ. Pastor Warren's point was simple. God takes us through events so that we can learn the true meaning of this passage of scripture. Like young children, we have to experience and taste the feelings of events in our lives that are simply not achievable without Him. We find out we MUST have Him with us, guiding us, literally carrying us, through our experiences so we learn to walk with Him through every experience.
To me, this gives an explanation for some of the seemingly senseless tragedies we go through. We know God's ways are not our ways ( Isaiah 55:8). He knows the only important things are those that count for eternity, so His goals are eternal, not our temporary comfort or happiness here. As parents, we look toward the 'end product' of our children. We sometimes make them temporarily unhappy for the ultimate goal of helping them to become good people. God is a much more loving parent than we are, so He may have to go to even greater lengths to attain His goals for us. I can more readily accept difficult things in life when I understand God's agenda.
So what's your learning curve? Do you have to be taught over and over (like I do) to learn something. Or are you 'teachable', responding to God's teaching during the beginning stages before the lessons get harder? I know one thing....His Word is true. We most certainly can do ALL THINGS....when we have learned Who we need with us to do them.
Comments
Post a Comment