Encouragement

Philippians 1
3I thank my God every time I remember you. 4In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. 

As I read and study the Bible, lots of themes come up: Jesus' sacrifice, God's will, God's plans, our sin, God's love for us. Today, though, the focus was on Philippians: a letter of encouragement.

Oddly enough, Paul starts the letter by explaining about how he is imprisoned for telling the Gospel and he is writing this letter of encouragement to the Philippians from prison. Even more odd, he is trying to encourage the people who are not in prison! You would think they would be trying to encourage him.

Then he explains. He explains how a miracle happened and their chains were broken. He explains how they remained in the prison even though their chains had been miraculously removed, so that the guards would not get in trouble. He explains that is how the guard and his family eventually accepted Jesus as their savior 

Paul is still spreading the Gospel even though imprisoned. He is singing hymns and praying aloud and talking about Jesus while chained up.  It is from this position that he decides he needs to encourage the Philippians. I don't think he was unconcerned with his own situation. I think he was focused on the Father and what needed to be done to share the Gospel, so that all could be saved whether imprisoned or not.  So, he was delighted and grateful when the guard's family became Christians, not depressed about his chains. From this perspective of gratitude, he is telling the Philippians to hang in there. God will finish what He started. Look at what God is doing through Paul's imprisonment! 

What do we get from this? We need to encourage one and another! We are all in this together. Look for the good! 

Father,  please help me to look for the good in every situation and to encourage others rather than be a discouragement. In Jesus' name,  Amen.