If we had to sum up Paul’s teaching in Phil 4:10-20, it would probably be to say that contentment or satisfaction can truly only be found in God. Anything else we crave tends to lead to temporary satisfaction; we are soon then off chasing after the wind. The writer of Ecclesiastes says, ‘I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.’ (Eccl 1:14) This has never been a popular saying, but all the material possessions in the world, all the happiest relationships, all the most fulfilling jobs ultimately do not fully satisfy, and it is a wise person who realises that contentment is found in God’s presence.

Aaron Shust’s song ‘Satisfy’ conveys the truth that ‘I find everything I need in You.’ Paul tells us we can know God’s full, rich blessing and provision: ‘My God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus. (Phil 4:19) Many of us spend a lot of time trying to meet all our needs or trying to meet the needs of other people. No matter how good, kind, generous or rich we are, there will come a point when we run out of what is needed. The secret to living well, however, is knowing that God never runs out. There is no need we can have which He cannot meet.

• Are you lonely? He can supply companionship.

• Are you hungry? He can supply food.

• Are you in need of work? He can find the right job for you.

• Are you in need of healing? He can heal all your diseases.

• Are you confused? He can bring clarity and guidance and direction.

• Are you afraid? He can provide peace and courage.

In God, we find all the satisfaction which eludes us elsewhere.

Philippians 4 is one of those chapters absolutely jam-packed with promises from God. Philippians 4:6-7 offers us the model for prayer which can transform us from nervous wrecks into peaceful people and Philippians 4:8 gives us the key to victory by showing us where to focus our thoughts. In the rest of the chapter, we looked this morning at three further verses which show us how to change how we live and which, if assimilated into our lives, lead us into freedom and satisfaction.

1. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation. (Phil 4:12)

2. I can do all this through him who gives me strength. (Phil 4:13)

3. My God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus. (Phil 4:19)

These three verses contain great and precious promises (see 2 Pet 1:3-4) which have the power to transform how we live.

Contentment

Paul’s thanks to the Philippians for their financial support are given in the context that he has learned that happiness is not bound up in possessions or favourable circumstances. He knows that riches are no substitute for God (see Luke 12:15, 1 Tim 6:10) and that joy is not dependent on good circumstances (he is writing the letter from prison, after all!) Satisfaction can only be found in God, and we do well to let go of our need for material things to keep us content as well as our need for control. Paul has found satisfaction in God – and we can too. Ps 131 gives us the picture of quiet contentment found in a weaned child; sometimes, we need to quieten our souls and be still before God.

Christ’s Strength

The secret to contentment lies in dwelling in Christ, rather than trying to obtain satisfaction ourselves in our own strength. All the blessings God promises His people come as we dwell in Him. These include eternal life (Rom 6:23), freedom from condemnation (Rom 8:1), holiness (1 Cor 1:2), freedom (Gal 2:4) and acceptance in God’s family (Gal 3:26) These promises and blessings are available to each one of us, and when we live according to who we are in Christ Jesus, we also have access to all the strength and power of the Godhead. (Eph 1:19-21) Contentment is possible because we have access to all of God’s strength and power. We don’t have to run on empty. We don’t have to do it in our own strength. We can come to God and be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. (Eph 6:10)

God’s Provision

Many of us spend a lot of time trying to meet all our needs or trying to meet the needs of other people. No matter how good, kind, generous or rich we are, there will come a point when we run out of what is needed. The secret to living well, however, is knowing that God never runs out. There is no need we can have which He cannot meet. As the Passion Translation of Phil 4:19 says, ‘I am convinced that my God will fully satisfy every need you have, for I have seen the abundant riches of glory revealed to me through the Anointed One, Jesus Christ!’ When we fully see God in all the abundant riches of His glory, we know that there is no good thing He will withhold from us and can live without fear or anxiety (see Ps 84:11, Ps 37:4).

Paul gives thanks to the Philippians in Phil 4:10-20 for the practical help they gave him. As Jesus reminded us in the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats, we serve God when we serve other people (see Matt 25:31-46), and this can be seen in a variety of ways (which often we don’t think are particularly significant.) Jesus mentioned clothing people, feeding people, helping the sick and visiting those in prison; for Paul, he was grateful for the financial help offered to him by the Philippians and spent much of his time dealing with the practical issues of collecting money from different churches to give aid to the church in Jerusalem. Such things may not seem particularly glamorous or even spiritual, but they are necessary and God promises rewards to those who sow generously (see 2 Cor 8 and 9).

We are grateful to all who support our church and its ministries, whether that is through finances (we are glad to be able to support Bedline in Haiti, Amshika in India and Innocent in Uganda and to have been able to help those in India with whom Fredrick and Reeba work as well as supporting the local Salvation Army food bank), practical help (cleaning the building, serving in different areas and helping with ministry) and prayer and preaching. Faithful service and practical help are not inconsequential or unimportant. That cup of cold water to someone on a hot and dusty day matters enormously. Your kind word, your smile, your practical help could be the way someone’s heart is melted or how their eyes are opened to spiritual truth. It’s worth repeating that it’s the little things in life that really count and we can never show our gratitude too much!

My eighteen-month-old granddaughter has discovered a most useful word: “This!” In her early attempts to communicate verbally with us, she has become an expert at pointing dramatically and announcing, “This!”, with the unspoken subtext being, “Pass this to me; give this to me immediately!” The problem we servile adults have is that the finger often points at more than one object and we are left holding them up, one by one, in order to determine which ‘This!’ our diva is demanding. It’s an object lesson in the limitations of language and our need for her to increase her vocabulary in order to more precisely specify which particular object she desires!

Our task as Christians seems to me to be sometimes rather akin to my job at deciphering which “This!” my granddaughter requires. What is God saying to me today? What is the “This!” He wants me to look at? On what is His attention fixed? Because surely where His attention and gaze are is where my attention and gaze need to be?

The prophets repeatedly tell us “this is the word of the Lord” or “this is what the Lord says.” (2 Chron 11:4; Is 37:6, Jer 14:1, Jer 19:3, 15, for example). We all have a a need to hear this word (often called the ‘rhema word of God’, a word that is personal and specific (such as when Jesus told Peter to put down the nets after a fruitless night’s fishing.)) We need to hear the “This!” of God, for He is a God who speaks personally, specifically and directly to us.

It can be difficult at times to discern this word from the many voices crying out to us, but the more time we spend in God’s word and listening for His voice, the more we will not only hear his “This!” but will actually also know what He means by that word.

As the psalmist says, “I hear this most gentle whisper from One I never guessed would speak to me.” (Ps 81:5, The Message)

The central reality of life – which few of us ever seem to glimpse, let alone grasp – is that God is at the centre of everything and is the sovereign ruler of all. Jeremiah likens this to a potter who has complete control of His creations, shaping and moulding them as He sees fit. (Jer 18:4)

The doctrine of God’s sovereignty at times leads us to believe people are mere puppets of God with no free will, and this can lead to passivity and apathy. If God is in control, what point is there in striving and labouring for change?

The Bible holds in tension the truth that people are not puppets, even as it boldly proclaims God’s sovereignty. Jeremiah’s word to Israel spoke of nations repenting and God relenting as well as the opposite happening (God reconsidering the good He had planned for them if the nations continued to walk down the path of evil.) (Jer 18:5-9) We see something of the wonder of paradox in this tension between sovereignty and free will: how our prayers and behaviour can actually have an impact on God and on what He does, even if we have no explanation for how this actually works!

Now is not a time to give up and roll over, to accept passively that we are all doomed because of the current pandemic we face. It is a time to earnestly seek God and to repent of our selfish tendency to live life as though we were at the centre of the universe. It is a time to humble ourselves and to plead with God to have mercy and to relent.

Jeremiah asserted – a lone voice among the prophets, it seems – that ‘my people have forgotten me’ (Jer 18:15), calling this a ‘most horrible thing.’ God’s people are charged with remembering and proclaiming who God is: faithful, gracious, merciful, forgiving, good and kind, but also true, just, and (like the potter) right in everything He does and says. Above all, we are called to declare to those around us that ‘our God reigns!’ (Is 52:7) – not in fatalistic resignation but in confident proclamation, sure that He will do what is right. Our part is to hear Him, heed Him and live in such a way that others see and alternative to the fear and despair that are everywhere. We are called to be clay in the hands of the Master Potter, to be different to those who have no knowledge of Him. May our lives reflect His beauty as we trust daily and walk humbly with Him.

When we are faced with loss – be that the loss of a person, the loss of a friendship or other relationship, the loss of a pet, the loss of a job or even the loss of a dream or hope – there is bereavement and often a period of grieving. That period has no set time limit and we often feel adrift on a sea of unfamiliarity. Life seems to lose its colour; we can become listless, apathetic, as though there seems little point in carrying on. All the things we took for granted suddenly seem shaken; grief takes us through different stages, including sadness, anger, resentment, bewilderment and that terrible feeling of isolation. Grief is a profoundly lonely journey, even when others long to walk with us through that time.

The truths we know about God – His goodness, love, grace, mercy, faithfulness and comfort – may seem like distant memories at best, glimpses of a land we no longer seem able to reach. At worst, we feel like Jeremiah: deceived, seduced, abandoned (see Jer 15:18, Jer 20:7). This is a time when many walk away from the Lord, convinced that He has in fact walked away from them.

How do we survive such times? How do we come through loss and grief with faith intact and even strengthened?

I believe one way is through mercy hooks, those tiny reminders of who God is and what He is really like which shine into our darkness, at first with all the force of a flickering candle, but gradually blazing forth in dazzling light which dispels every darkness and overcomes every sorrow.

Mercy, love and grace are at the heart of who God is, and He tailors these to meet us in those dark valleys. If we look, we will find these present in our darkness. It might be a friend who phones you when you’re desolate and just listens to you without judgment. It might be a sunrise whose beauty reminds you that hope comes in the morning. It might be a song whose lyrics pierce to the heart because they say what you can no longer articulate for yourself. It’s impossible to predict how God will reveal Himself in the darkness because He does this in ways that are tailor-made for you. There is no one-size-fits-all plaster for grief. Instead, there is a suffering Saviour who knows what you need.

These mercy hooks are slivers of hope when all hope seems to be gone. They are there to strengthen on an hourly basis. I remember driving to pick up a parcel on the morning after my mother had died, a tedious job to be fitted in when numbness and exhaustion from lack of sleep meant I just wanted to hide under the quilt in bed. As we drove, the most beautiful rainbow appeared in the sky, a mercy hook from God, a reminder that He always keeps His promises. I went into the depot to pick up this unknown and unwanted parcel, and opened it to find a small teddy bear wearing a jumper that said, ‘Julie’s Big Hug Bear’, a gift posted weeks before by a friend of mine in Australia who desperately wanted to offer comfort and solace to me as she walked through my mother’s cancer journey with me, arriving at exactly the right time to remind me not only of her love and support but of God’s. It didn’t stop the pain of loss, but it was a reminder, something I could physically hold onto, that I was loved, that both my friend and God cared about me. Mercy hooks.

You might have to dig in the darkness to find these rays of light, but I guarantee they are there. God cares for us so personally, so intimately, that He will not leave us comfortless. The Holy Spirit will come alongside us in our grief and give us what we need, tailor-made for us. In God’s mercy, I sat with my father doing crossword puzzles hours before a fall down the stairs unexpectedly ended his life. A mercy hook of normality that gave me strength to face sudden loss. What mercy hooks can you find in the darkness? These are not flimsy like the coat pegs on which we hang our coats and jackets. They have enough strength to steer us through the journey of grief and bring us safely home to God.