Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things again is no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard for you. Philippians 3:1
As Paul is writing to encourage the Church at Phillipi, his exhortation to them is to, “Rejoice in the Lord”.
The fact of the matter is that for the child of God, there is always reason to rejoice. But we are not merely rejoicing because life is easy or because our circumstances are desirable. No, our rejoicing is not in response to things of this world. Our rejoicing is in the Eternal Work of the Eternal God; we rejoice IN the Lord.
As God’s children, we can rejoice regardless of the circumstances, as we reckon with the Truth. We rejoice as we recognize our undeserved eternal position, that Christ has eternity taken care of, and we are eternally His.
We rejoice as we recognize that Christ in me is enough for whatever I am facing or going through; it’s impossible without Him; of course it is. You cannot and were not intended to do anything without Him. Our rejoicing is a response to the eternal, a response to the Truth, a response to Christ.
In Philippians 3:1 we read that a life lived responding to Christ, which is a life of rejoicing, is a “safeguard for you.”
Living this way is a safeguard for our minds, as it keeps the Truth at the forefront of our thinking. It’s a safeguard for our hearts as it keeps our inner man in the right posture before the Lord. It’s a safeguard for our feet as it stops us from wandering.
I don’t know what you are currently dealing with as you read this, but I know that there is a safeguard that is available to us, and we live in the good of that safeguard as we look to Christ and respond to the Truth.
Amen
By: Ben Ellershaw
