a-t-t-I-t-u-d-e-s

I – Isolate my negative thoughts

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Philippians 4:13

Ever have one of those days?  How about one of those weeks?  Have a month to end all months?  How about a year? 

“What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.”  Is a quote thrown around in movies or said off the cuff when someone is having a hard time, or an athlete needs to be pushed.  The actual quote was in German, so the translation can get funny.  If you search the web, the quote becomes, “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.”  However, the quote comes from the German Atheist Philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche’s The Twilight of the Idols.  “Out of life's school of war: What does not destroy me, makes me stronger.”  - number 8 on his hit parade of “Maxims and Arrows.” 

Coming close to death doesn’t seem to make someone stronger but weaker.  A person understands their limitations more and the reality of their short walk on this earth.  Of the Christian life, people say that you are either in a trial, coming out of a trial, or going into a trial.  Trials and tribulations are a part of life that God uses as instruction but also directs us to rely more on Him. 

In 1^st Corinthians 10: 13, the Holy Spirit writes “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.”  The Greek word here for “Temptation” is peirasmos which means trial, probation, testing, being tried, temptation, calamity, affliction.  So, God is faithful and provides a way of escape from these trials.

Let’s look at tonight’s text, as we’ve said before, Philippians is a letter written by the Apostle Paul to the people of Phillipi as an encouragement to them.  Before we look at the verse, let’s look at the context of the verse or the verses before it, starting with verse 10.

 But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at last your care for me has flourished again; though you surely did care, but you lacked opportunity. Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Paul writes that he can be content in any situation as long as he has Christ.  Paul has learned through trials that whether he is full from a good Baptist potluck or starving – he is content.  The Greek for “content” here is autarkés or self-sufficient, contented, satisfied, independent.  It can further be described as “content in the sense of being satisfied because living in God's fullness. This inward sufficiency is as valid in ‘low times’ (suffering) as in ‘high times’ (temporal prosperity).”  Let’s look at verse 13 from the Amplified Bible.

I have strength for all things in Christ Who empowers me [I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him Who infuses inner strength into me; I am self-sufficient in Christ's sufficiency].

The “I” part of our acrostic is not about speaking evil about someone.  It is about being content with our situation.  It is about being satisfied in good times and in bad times, because Christ is with you and will pick you up if you fall.  So, in that bad day, bad week, bad month, or bad year, “isolate your negative thoughts” and focus on Christ and what He has done for you and continues to do for you.  “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” for the wages (salary, reward) of sin is death, but the gift (of grace, an undeserved favor) “of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”