Displaying items by tag:minister

Thanksgiving by Canon Val

Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.

Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies. Philippians 4:6-9 (The Message)

When Paul wrote to the church in Philippi, the people lived in a proud Roman colony. Their city was called “a little Rome,” filled with veterans of the empire’s armies, people who valued power, status, and loyalty to the emperor. Daily life was shaped by Roman laws, Roman gods, and Roman pride. To be a Christian in such a place was filled with challenges.

The Philippian believers were a tiny community, without the strength of numbers or influence. They lived under pressures of all kinds, economic, social, spiritual as they tried to live out of their faith in the world around them. These words speak to us today as well. We, too, live in cultures that prize status, wealth, and power. We, too, feel the pull to fit in, to chase after what others value. But Paul’s words remind us: our lives are rooted in a different kingdom. Our hope, our joy, our strength come not from the world around us, but from Christ who holds us fast. Surely it is all of this that we  celebrate this Thanksgiving season!