Christ, our Lord and Savior can do anything, and through His strength, so can we, as you can see in this week’s Scripture Memory Song: Philippians 4:13.
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
Philippians 4:13 (NKJV)
Devotional
Here’s a bit of context for this week’s verse:
10 I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. 11 Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. 12 I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. 13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
Philippians 4:10-13 (ESV)
The observant ones may notice that we’re using the English Standard Version down here, but in the video and the verse at the top of the post, we’re using the New King James Version. Normally we use the ESV, but we felt it would be wise to use NKJV for the memory verse simply so that those who read or hear the verse who don’t know the Bible very well understand who “him” refers to. It’s only a one word difference, and that one word is just more specific in NKJV.
Anyway, this chapter in Philippians is full of great verses to memorize (4:4, 4:6-7) and it’s great to read through the whole chapter (or whole book, or whole Bible while you’re at it) to get the full context of these verses and how they’re related. In this verse Paul is telling everyone that the Lord can be counted on to do (or give us the strength to do) anything. No matter what happens around us, this whole chapter reminds us to pray and ask God to supply what we need, rejoice and be thankful for all we have through him, and to trust him to answer our prayers and take care of us.
I think we also need to take note that Paul’s situation is different than the situations we run into when we feel we are “in need”. For us, we start learning to lean on the Lord more when something bad happens to us and brings us low, but that’s not necessarily the case for Paul. Paul made the choice to follow God’s plan for him to spread the Gospel around the world, which he knew would bring times of hardship. He chose to go to the difficult places knowing God would be there for him, whereas we fall into those difficult places, and would have avoided them if we could.
Let’s not discount that. If you feel like God might be calling you to a difficult place, but are thinking it might not really be God’s calling for you because there’s no way God would make you give up your comfort, then I would like to tell you that I think you’re trying to avoid letting go of the things that separate you from God. Those places may look difficult, but those are the places where God will be more real to you than ever. Don’t worship comfort and “things” more than God. Trust him!
I purposefully avoided quitting my job and starting this blog because I didn’t think we could survive while we built the blog up, so I had to “fall” instead. God got me fired so that I could learn to rely on him and let him teach me several lessons along the way.