Today Our Daily Bread Phil 4

Philippians 4: 1 - 23
1 Dear brothers and sisters, F12 I love you and long to see you, for you are my joy and the reward for my work. So please stay true to the Lord, my dear friends. 2 And now I want to plead with those two women, Euodia and Syntyche. Please, because you belong to the Lord, settle your disagreement. 3 And I ask you, my true teammate, F13 to help these women, for they worked hard with me in telling others the Good News. And they worked with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are written in the Book of Life
4 Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again – rejoice! 5 Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do. Remember, the Lord is coming soon. 6 Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7 If you do this, you will experience God's peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. 8 And now, dear brothers and sisters, let me say one more thing as I close this letter. Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. 9 Keep putting into practice all you learned from me and heard from me and saw me doing, and the God of peace will be with you.
10 How grateful I am, and how I praise the Lord that you are concerned about me again. I know you have always been concerned for me, but for a while you didn't have the chance to help me. 11 Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to get along happily whether I have much or little. 12 I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. 13 For I can do everything with the help of Christ who gives me the strength I need. 14 But even so, you have done well to share with me in my present difficulty. 15 As you know, you Philippians were the only ones who gave me financial help when I brought you the Good News and then traveled on from Macedonia. No other church did this. 16 Even when I was in Thessalonica you sent help more than once. 17 I don't say this because I want a gift from you. What I want is for you to receive a well-earned reward because of your kindness. 18 At the moment I have all I need – more than I need! I am generously supplied with the gifts you sent me with Epaphroditus. They are a sweet-smelling sacrifice that is acceptable to God and pleases him. 19 And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.
20 Now glory be to God our Father forever and ever. Amen. 21 Give my greetings to all the Christians there. The brothers who are with me here send you their greetings. 22 And all the other Christians send their greetings, too, especially those who work in Caesar's palace. 23 May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.
FOOTNOTES:F12: Greek brothers; also in 4:8. F13: Greek true yokefellow, or loyal Syzygus.
The New Living Translation
Holy Bible, New Living Translation,copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.,Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

~Lena's Comments~
We are all representatives of the Lord Jesus, and of one another as we yoke together in the work of God’s kingdom. It’s good to be a part of a "team" and represent someone. If we do not think and act this way, we may find ourselves behaving differently. If we believe we are ambassadors for God, we will have a sense about us that will actually keep us from evil and make us intent on purpose, His purpose!
As we are in this earth, we have to find a focus, some purpose greater than we see ourselves and FIX our mind on it with immovable thoughts. Yesterday, I was listening to Pastor Fred read and speak, he skimmed by a passage referring to the voice we heed, and the voice of the word of God. We speak about this in our Cell meetings. There are SO many voices to heed. If we do not find one to focus on we can be like fans of a tennis match – back and forth, back and forth. So as we’ve all heard before, I think of Jn 10– "My sheep hear My voice and the Voice of a stranger they will not follow…" We pray that, recite that & believe that. Somehow I’d always seen it as – the other voices will somehow be quieter, maybe by adding so many choices of God’s word that we’ll then not hear those but listen to His. That’s true, and today I also saw, that if I do not turn or tune or incline my ear to them, giving my ear to them, I’ll not follow them either. That is also how worry stops, by not heeding it’s voice.
That we would give our resources into the lives of the work of Christ shows that we believe in and support it. Giving of our resources into the lives of others, shows we are willing to come outside of our own sphere of care and concern and even faith and that we are willing to increase another’s faith. Giving is a sign of maturity. Especially giving of one’s self. For each person this can be different, for one giving of their time would be the most expensive gift that would express the willingness to come outside of one’s self. For another that would be money, etc…God LOVES a cheerful giver