Be Still and Know Daily Bible Devotion

Exodus 18:24-25 Moses listened to his father-in-law’s advice and followed his suggestions. He chose capable men from all over Israel and appointed them as leaders over the people. He put them in charge of groups of one thousand, one hundred, fifty, and ten. Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro, paid him a visit in the desert and was thrilled to hear about the amazing way in which God had brought the Israelites out of Egypt. But he was not so thrilled when he saw the way in which Moses handled disputes. From morning till evening Moses would listen to the people’s problems and give them a ruling from God. It was all very impressive, but Jethro could see that it was unsustainable. He suggested that Moses was not only going to wear himself out, but also the people as well! He needed to change, and Jethro encouraged him to recruit other people to consider the simpler cases and to retain for himself only the more difficult ones. It was a straightforward recommendation and Moses was happy to take his father-in-law’s advice. Every leader needs to learn the skill of delegation. Without it, they wear themselves out, just as Jethro predicted. In the life of a church, delegation is particularly important because God has deliberately given gifts to his Church to enable its work to be done. If one person hugs all the tasks to themselves the church will never grow. Every leader needs to be continually looking for others who can share the responsibilities knowing that, as they take on these tasks, they will grow and the work of the church will be extended. Effective delegation relies on the leader seeing their responsibility to train and encourage those to whom roles are delegated. What should never happen is abdication: when a leader offloads a job on to another person and walks away. This results in people quickly becoming demoralised and giving up. Thank God for Jethro’s wise advice and for the blessing of loving and thoughtful delegation. Question What do you need to learn about wise delegation? Prayer Thank you, loving Lord, for those who give me wise advice. Help me to listen to it and turn it into action. Amen

Exodus 16:29 They must realise that the Sabbath is the Lord’s gift to you. That is why he gives you a two-day supply on the sixth day, so there will be enough for two days. On the Sabbath day you must each stay in your place. Do not go out to pick up food on the seventh day. It was vital that the weekly rhythm of life was maintained in the desert. On the face of it, this was going to be difficult to achieve with God’s miraculous provision of daily food in the morning and evening. But God knew this and so he provided the people with twice the normal supplies of food on a Friday in order to allow the Sabbath to be a day of rest. True to form, some of the people went out on the Sabbath to look for food only to find there was nothing there. The principle of a day of rest was foundational to their life together. A day of rest continues to be of crucial importance to us today. Sundays have become progressively busier in recent years. The days when most of the people travelling on a Sunday were going to church have long gone. Shopping centres are heaving with customers; sports events are busy; car boot sales attract great swarms of people; and those who stay at home are busy too. But amid this constant activity we need to take time to stop, reflect and worship. When I was a child, my parents had very strict rules about Sundays. We were not allowed to play with balls, watch television, do homework or go to shops or cinema. I suspect that most people would question those rules (including me!) but I thank God that, from my earliest days, Sunday was set apart as something special. It couldn’t be confused with the other days of the week. It was a day for us to focus our attention on God. The lives of the people of Israel trudging through the desert could hardly be more different from our lives today, but I believe that the principle of the Sabbath still holds good and that we should work hard at keeping Sunday special. Question In what ways do you seek to keep your Sundays special? Prayer Lord God, I thank you for the gift of the Sabbath. Help me to use my Sundays wisely so that I can become stronger in serving you. Amen

Exodus 16:19-20 Then Moses told them, “Do not keep any of it until morning.” But some of them didn’t listen and kept some of it until morning. But by then it was full of maggots and had a terrible smell. Moses was very angry with them. The rule couldn’t have been simpler. The bread or manna that God gave to his people every morning would sustain them for the day ahead, but it couldn’t be kept overnight. Formed by the secretion of insects, if it was left it would soon become mouldy and inedible. All the people needed to do was to obey this very simple rule and all would be well. But people will be people, and some decided that it was a silly rule that didn’t apply to them and that they would try to hang on to the food. Moses was understandably angry with them. Why is it that human beings find it so hard to obey? The story of humanity from the Garden of Eden onwards is one of persistent disobedience. This is tragic because all the blessings of this life are on offer to those who will obey, and disobedience invariably leads to one form of disaster or another. Jesus spoke much about obedience and made it clear that a relationship with him absolutely depended upon it. In saying that, he pointed out that his relationship with his own heavenly Father was also based upon obedience. There is an old song that sums this up very powerfully: “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way / to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.” It’s so simple and yet we all struggle to live this way completely. The commandment that Jesus gave to his disciples was to love one another, just as he had loved them (John 13:34-35). This is still the fundamental rule that we are commanded to obey. Loving other people is often tough and costly. When we reach out in love it is sometimes thrown back in our faces but, whatever the circumstances, the command is always to love. Jesus knew the high price of love better than anyone, but obedience to this command is always the best possible way to live. Question Do you struggle to obey God’s commands? If so, in what ways? Prayer Lord God, I thank you that you are so forgiving. Teach me afresh the blessing of obedience. Amen

Exodus 16:17-18 So the people of Israel did as they were told. Some gathered a lot, some only a little. But when they measured it out, everyone had just enough. God’s miraculous provision of food for the people of Israel throughout their 40 years in the wilderness is breathtaking. I particularly love these verses because of the wonderful detail. Although the families had very different needs, everyone had just enough. Enough is a precious word. Wouldn’t it be great to live in a world where everyone was content with just enough? Sadly, although there is plenty of food for everyone, there are millions of people who go to bed hungry each night. In the UK approximately 9.5 million tonnes of food are wasted every year, which is horrifying when you consider that there are 8.4 million people here living in food poverty. It is estimated that around 9 million people in the world die of starvation every year. It is a terrible fact that a child dies of hunger every ten seconds. But this is completely unnecessary in the modern world. We have the means of producing the right quantity of food and transporting it to the places where it is needed. What is lacking is the political will to make it happen. No lover of God, the creator of the world, could possibly live comfortably with these sad facts. In the name of our loving God, we have to respond. By ourselves we cannot change the world, but we can control our own lives - and we can respond by being content with having enough. Always straining for more of everything isn’t good for us, our families, our society or our world. Question Are you content with having enough? Prayer Lord God, thank you for the way in which you perfectly provide for my needs. Help me to enjoy what you have given me and not to be forever straining to acquire more. Amen

Exodus 16:11–12 Then the Lord said to Moses: “I have heard the Israelites’ complaints. Now tell them, ‘In the evening you will have meat to eat, and in the morning you will have all the bread you want. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.’” We cannot be sure how many Israelites left Egypt, but it was certainly many thousands. Feeding such a group of people would have been a massive logistical exercise in any location, but to do so in a desert would seem an impossible task. But God had an answer and, miraculously, throughout their 40 years of wilderness wanderings, the people were fed. In the evening, they fed on quails, which are migratory birds belonging to the partridge family. On their long flights quails would often become exhausted in the evening and large flocks of them would land on the desert floor and be easy to catch. In the morning the people were supplied with bread which was called manna, a word that literally means “What’s that?” because that’s what the people said when they first saw it. It was a drop-like substance formed from the excretion of an insect living on the trees and shrubs of the region, especially the tamarisk tree. In these amazing ways the people were fed. One of the recurrent themes of the Bible is that God provides. Abraham made this discovery when he was about to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice. God provided a ram for the sacrifice that Abraham needed to make and Abraham named the place “Jehovah Jireh”, which means “The Lord will provide” (Genesis 22:14). Through the twists and turns of the history of God’s people in the Bible, he continued to provide for them. The apostle expressed exactly this same confidence in God when he wrote: “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” (Philippians 4:19). Our needs are totally different from those of the wandering Israelites, but we serve the same God and we can be confident that, as we place our trust in him, he will give us what we need day by day. Question In what ways have you seen God provide for your needs? Prayer Loving God, I thank you that your name is still Jehovah Jireh. I praise you that you have provided for me in the past and always will. Amen

Exodus 15:23–24 When they came to the oasis of Marah, the water was too bitter to drink. So they called the place Marah (which means “bitter”). Then the people complained and turned against Moses. “What are we going to drink?” they demanded. Pressure. Every leader knows what it is to face discontented people. I hasten to add that I haven’t faced a huge number, but then I’ve never taken tens of thousands of people on a walk through a desert! It’s easy to understand why they were complaining. Life in a desert is hard enough work even when there is a good supply of water, so arriving at an oasis and finding its water was too bitter to drink must have been a shattering experience for everyone. Moses could have apologised or tried to put a positive gloss on the experience by saying that everything had gone all right until now, or he could have joined the people in complaining. The choice he made was a good one. He prayed (v25). When a crisis breaks, it is very easy to get sucked into the whirlpool of confusion that it creates. We are tempted to examine the situation in ever greater detail, pulling in all the experts to explore solutions. Those are not bad things to do, but they shouldn’t be the priority. Moses got it right and prayed. In doing so, God directed him to do something that he would never have thought of. He simply needed to throw a piece of wood into the water, and it became sweet. There at Marah God gave the people a standard to test their faithfulness to him. He promised them that if they obeyed his commands then he would ensure that they didn’t suffer the same fate which he sent to the Egyptians. He promised that he would be their healer. We all face crises. They are often unexpected and always unwelcome. This means that we need to know how to face them, and here Moses learned that the best way was to bring them to God. As we lift up our dilemmas to God, we need to be ready to do whatever he tells us to do, even if it is bizarrely different from anything that we have done before. Question How good are you at handling crises, and how do you think you could improve? Prayer Loving Father, thank you that you are with me whatever challenge I have to face. Amen

Exodus 15:2 The Lord is my strength and my song; he has given me victory. This is my God, and I will praise him— my father’s God, and I will exalt him! This is part of a wonderful song that Moses sang after the people of Israel had crossed the Red Sea. After 400 years they had finally left Egypt; 400 years is a very long time, and the people could easily have stayed there for ever. But there was a deep longing to be free from the persecution and slavery that they had experienced in Egypt. Moses’ song of victory beautifully expressed a national sigh of relief that the suffering was now at an end. At last they were free. The people’s exodus from Egypt was a defining moment in the nation’s story because it told them so much about their God. They learned that God is, by his very nature, a God who loves to set people free. He’s a God of salvation. It’s not surprising that throughout the Bible there are frequent references back to the crossing of the Red Sea. If God was able to overcome an obstacle as great as this, then surely nothing could stand in his way. There’s great encouragement in this for all of us. Whether we are looking at global problems, national difficulties or the situations that we are facing in our own lives, we need to look at them through the lens of God’s salvation. He is the God who sets people free and looks to us to work with him to bring his salvation to the world today. We will often be daunted by the challenges that we face but, like Moses, we need to keep our eyes fixed on the Lord who remains our strength and our song. Question In what ways have you discovered God to be your strength and your song? Prayer Lord God, I worship you because you are the God of the Exodus. Thank you that you are constantly setting people free in our world today. Amen

Exodus 14:13–14 Moses told the people: “Don’t be afraid. Just stand still and watch the Lord rescue you today. The Egyptians you see today will never be seen again. The Lord himself will fight for you. Just stay calm.” This was a crunch moment in the history of the people of Israel. After the long succession of plagues, they were finally heading out of Egypt and it is said that they did so with fists raised in defiance. Surely Pharoah would at last be glad to see them go! But no, he changed his mind yet again and sent out his army to stop them. It must have been a truly terrifying moment. We are told that Pharaoh sent 600 of his best chariots after the people, which must have been an incredibly intimidating sight for them. The people immediately panicked and lashed out at Moses, blaming him for bringing them out into the desert to die. They argued that it would have been much better to have continued as slaves in Egypt than to be corpses in the wilderness. It's never easy for leaders when people panic. Moses must surely have felt more than a little concerned that the mighty Egyptian army was bearing down on them. But just look at the calm and wise way in which he addressed the people. He urged them to look to the Lord rather than to the terrifying threat of the Egyptians. He reminded the Israelites that they were not alone and that God would give them the victory, so they should remain calm. We face continual threats in our own day. In many places churches are small and struggling. Often they are facing huge financial challenges. Many people are finding it hard to navigate their way through the moral challenges which our society poses. In many countries Christians are a small and persecuted minority. And everyone is aware of the enormous challenges to our world’s way of life from climate change, international terrorism and regimes that have no regard for human rights. The challenges are many and we need to pray for Christian leaders to be just like Moses – calm and confident in God. Question What do you think we need to learn from Moses’ example? Prayer Lord God, thank you for our leaders. Help them to live so close to you that they will always be calm and confident in their leadership. Amen

Exodus 4:21 And the Lord told Moses: “When you arrive back in Egypt, go to Pharaoh and perform all the miracles I have empowered you to do. But I will harden his heart so he will refuse to let the people go.” God sometimes asks people to do extraordinarily difficult jobs. But this must be one of the toughest. As we know, Moses was feeling very inadequate and ill-equipped for the task. He was now told that when he went to plead with Pharoah to let the people of Israel leave Egypt, he would fail. Time and again, Moses would go to Pharaoh and beg him to release the enslaved people, and repeatedly Pharaoh would say no. God sent one plague after another and even though, at times, Pharaoh seemed to be weakening, he continually refused to let the people go. Even after the tenth plague, in which the firstborn sons and livestock were killed throughout Egypt, Pharaoh withdrew his permission to the people of Israel to leave the land. What amazes me about this period in the history of the people of Israel is Moses’ persistence. To have endured the ten plagues and all the terrible implications of them must have been incredibly tough. It would have been entirely understandable if Moses had given up after the first five. But he stayed true to his mission and continued to go to Pharoah and plead the cause of his people. This dogged persistence is a quality that we see in many people in the Bible and notably the prophets, some of whom were specifically told that their words would be totally rejected by the people. We all want to be effective in what we do for the Lord, and it can be desperately hard when everything seems to be going wrong. It is hard to keep going in the face of discouragement and failure. But often God calls us, like Moses, simply to be faithful. To hang in there through the times of apparent defeat and trust God. In doing so Moses was able to lead the people out of Egypt after 400 years in the land. Question In what situation is God asking you to be doggedly persistent at the moment? Prayer Lord God, when you ask me to do something that is difficult, give me also the resolve and strength to be faithful. Amen

Exodus 4:16 “Aaron will be your spokesman to the people. He will be your mouthpiece, and you will stand in the place of God for him, telling him what to say.” Moses felt sure that his speech difficulties disqualified him from serving God. How could someone who was tongue-tied possibly lead the people of Israel and negotiate with Pharaoh? The answer was simple. His brother Aaron could fulfil that part of the role, and Moses could be the person who kept close to God and listened to his voice. In an ideal world, Moses would have been a perfect communicator and would have been able to do to the job himself, but in the real world he needed help. We don’t live in an ideal world! This means that we need to be continually light on our feet and ready to adapt to new circumstances. The pandemic forced us to change and adapt in all sorts of different ways. In our churches, we had to look at everything we do with new eyes. Meeting together online had all sorts of downsides, but it had many blessings too. It was wonderful to meet so easily with people from all over the world and to be able to offer online services to many people who weren’t used to attending church. God’s plans were not defeated by Moses’ speech difficulties and when he looks at us and our limited abilities, he won’t be held back by our inadequacies either. The image of the body of Christ makes it clear that no one has all the gifts. You and I have some gifts but without our brothers and sisters we will never be able to do God’s work. Throughout Moses’ crucial ministry he needed to rely on many other people. He needed to be humble enough to welcome the wisdom, support and voices of others – as do we. Question In what way have other people’s gifts been a blessing to you? Prayer Lord God, thank you for the wonderful gifts that you have given to the people in my life. Help me to value them and encourage them. Amen

Exodus 4:13 But Moses again pleaded: “Lord, please! Send someone else.” I wonder if you can identify with Moses. I certainly can. Time and again God has clearly asked me to do something and, like Moses, I have pleaded with him to find someone else. Moses would quickly have recognised that going back to Egypt was going to be hard enough, let alone to become the leader of his people and negotiate with the mighty Pharaoh. Anyone would have shaken at the knees to have taken on such a role. The reasons that people use for objecting to God’s call are many. Some, like Moses, are overwhelmed by the challenge and feel that their lack of skills makes them a poor choice. Others object to God’s call because they feel that the job they have been offered is beneath them. God calls them to be involved in youth work when they would much rather be in the worship band; or God calls them to do cleaning in the church when they would rather become a leader. What Moses had to learn was that God knew what he was doing. He was going to be one of the most important leaders in the whole history of the people of Israel. It was going to be through Moses that God delivered the law to his people, which would provide the framework for their life and worship. Moses looked at himself and observed his failures and disqualifications. God looked at him and saw the man of his choice, who he would equip to be exactly the right leader at the right time. The challenge we face day by day is to listen to God so carefully that we hear what he wants us to do. Whether it is a high-profile role, or a hidden and low-profile role, if it is what God is calling us to do, it is the most important job in the world. Question How are you seeking to discover what God wants you to do? Prayer Lord God, thank you that you have a purpose for our lives. Help me to know what you are calling me to do today. Amen

Exodus 4:10 But Moses pleaded with the Lord: “O Lord, I’m not very good with words. I never have been, and I’m not now, even though you have spoken to me. I get tongue-tied, and my words get tangled.” I feel a bit sorry for Moses. I have often heard people suggesting that Moses was just looking for excuses to turn down God’s job offer. However, Moses’ reply to God sounds to me like a perfectly reasonable objection. He clearly had significant problems with speaking and this would, it seems to me, make him a far from ideal candidate for a job that would be all about effective communication. But God was having none of it. He had decided that Moses was the man for the job and no objections, however substantial, were going to cause him to change his mind. When God chooses someone to work for him, he equips them with the ability to do it. In the New Testament we are introduced to Peter who, throughout Jesus’ ministry, consistently blundered with his words. Time and again we wince at his foolishness, and we squirm with embarrassment at the memory of his repeated denials that he knew Jesus. If you were looking to appoint a communications officer straight after Jesus’ ascension I can’t imagine that Peter would have been your preferred candidate! Surely, he was bound to make a mess of it. But look at what happened. On the Day of Pentecost Peter spoke with power and clarity and the outcome was that over 3,000 people became followers of Jesus that day. And that was no flash in the pan. Peter became the principal leader of the church in Jerusalem and finally died for his faith. God knew exactly what he was doing when he called Moses and Peter. On the face of it they seemed unsuitable for the roles to which God called them, but in an amazing way the Lord enabled them to be incredibly effective in their work for him. That should be a great encouragement for us all. When God calls us to work for him he will equip us. Question In what ways has God equipped you to do his work? Prayer Lord God, thank you that you promise to equip me to do whatever you call me to do. Amen

Exodus 3:15 God also said to Moses: “Say this to the people of Israel: Yahweh, the God of your ancestors—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.” I wonder what you would say if God asked you to lead his people at a time of desperate need. I suspect that you, like Moses, would have a string of questions to ask! The first thing that he needed to know was who was sending him. The people of Israel were bound to ask, and he needed to have a good answer for them. God told him that he should say that “I am” had sent him to them, and then spelt out that this was God’s eternal name and that he was the God of their forefathers. We can be sure that the stories of the great fathers of the Jewish faith would often have been told among the people of Israel, and they needed to know that Moses stood in that line of succession. At the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry, a similar situation occurred. As Jesus sent out his disciples he recognised that they would need to know with what authority they went. Matthew records that the resurrected Jesus took his disciples up to a mountain in Galilee and there he informed them that he had been given all authority in heaven and earth. It would be in his name that they went out to make disciples of all nations. The unfolding story of the early Church in the Acts of the Apostles makes it consistently clear that their mission was inspired, energised and directed by the risen Jesus. The work of the Church today will never get anywhere unless we are clear that we are acting with the authority and in the name of the risen Lord Jesus Christ. This should give us great encouragement as we serve him together. Question How should the fact that we are working with the authority of the risen Christ affect our work for him? Prayer Risen Lord Jesus Christ, I thank you that every day you give me the authority to go out and serve you. Amen

Exodus 3:11–12 But Moses protested to God, “Who am I to appear before Pharaoh? Who am I to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt?” God answered, “I will be with you.” Moses was about 80 years old when God spoke to him from the burning bush. He was in the desert of Midian, on the eastern side of the Red Sea, which is where he had fled to after he had murdered an Egyptian. The idea of returning to Egypt and appearing before Pharaoh must have seemed crazy to him. And, given his upbringing in the royal palace, he hardly had the common touch to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt. It is little wonder, therefore, that Moses questioned God’s decision to appoint him as the people’s leader. When God calls people to serve him, they almost always ask the same question, “Who am I?” I certainly did. I was 18 years old when a man in our church asked me to go and preach in a village church near our home. I was amazed that he thought I would be suitable. It sounded like a terrifying responsibility. What would happen if I dried up mid-way through the service? Who was I, a mere teenager, to lead worship for people who were very much older than me? I was extremely unsure of myself, but I agreed to take the service. I also ensured that no one from my family attended! I couldn’t have coped with that. However, as the service progressed I spotted a friend of my parents sitting at the back of the church. This was definitely not what I wanted because I could now be sure that a full report on the service would get back to my family. At the end of the service the friend came up to me. Only those who have led public worship will know how vulnerable one feels in the moments after a service. She looked at me with a warm smile and said: “Jonathan, the Lord was with you this evening.” Her affirmation was incredibly important to me, and gave me courage to keep preaching in the knowledge that the Lord would always be with me. On paper Moses was spectacularly ill-suited to the role of leading the people of Israel. But God had called him and would be with him, and that’s what mattered. Question In what ways are you encouraged by the knowledge that God is with you? Prayer Lord God, thank you that however great the challenges that I face, you will still be with me. Amen

Exodus 3:4 When the Lord saw Moses coming to take a closer look, God called to him from the middle of the bush, “Moses! Moses!” “Here I am!” Moses replied. Moses’ life was remarkable. He was born in Egypt when the people of Israel were in slavery there, and Pharaoh had gone to extraordinary lengths to kill off all Israelite baby boys. Moses had miraculously survived and was brought up as a member of Pharaoh’s household. Years later he saw one of his own Israelite people being abused and, in his anger, killed the perpetrator. Moses soon recognised that his own life was in danger and so he fled from the country. He got married to Zipporah and in our reading today we find him looking after his father-in-law’s sheep. The life of a shepherd was a tough one. The heat could be intense and Moses continually needed to be alert to the threat from wolves and other wild animals. Much of what happened was familiar and predictable. However, in the midst of his working day he was suddenly aware of a burning bush. That in itself was not a big surprise, because such things can happen in the intense heat of the desert sun. But what drew his attention was that the bush didn’t burn up. As he inspected the bush more closely he suddenly heard the voice of God from the middle of the bush. This was a life-changing moment for Moses, and it happened on a normal working day. It reminds us that we always need to be ready to hear the voice of God, however ordinary and unremarkable our day might seem to be. It’s very tempting to think that God will choose to speak to us in the middle of a church service, or at a Christian festival or while on spiritual retreat – and he might! But the experience of many people through the years is that God often speaks to us amid the ordinary circumstances of our lives. The challenge to us is to be alert so that we hear God whenever he chooses to speak with us. Question Are you open to the fact that God might speak to you today? Prayer Lord God, thank you for the way in which you speak. Give me ears to hear your voice amid all the busyness and distractions of my daily life. Amen

Philippians 4:19 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. Generosity is a beautiful thing. I had the blessing of a very generous aunt. She never married and was a devoted follower of Jesus. She was generous with her time, especially to neighbours who were in need. Although she held a very senior executive role she was always happy to do the most menial jobs and would think nothing of it. She died in retirement while taking a neighbour to hospital and that seemed to sum up her life. She was always very generous with her money and was always looking for creative ways to help people and planted firmly in my teenage mind the blessing of being generous. Christians are not automatically generous, and the apostle Paul noted that the generosity of the Philippian church stood in marked contrast to that of many others. As he came towards the end of the letter, he thanked them once again for their gifts and described them as being “a sweet-smelling sacrifice that is acceptable and pleasing to God” (Philippians 4:18). When we give financial support to one another God notices and is blessed by our action, because in our giving we are reflecting the generosity that God first showed to us. However generous we might be, our generosity is only ever a pale reflection of the generosity of God. This beautiful letter has described the way in which God has poured out his love to us in the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul next assured his readers that they could look to the future with confidence knowing that God would continue to supply them with everything that they needed. God loves us too much to give us everything we want but we can be sure that, whatever our circumstances or our needs, God will perfectly provide for us. Question Who has inspired you by their generosity, and in what ways do you seek to be generous to others? Prayer Thank you, loving God, that you have always been generous to me and always will be. Amen

Philippians 4:11–13 I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. 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. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength. Advertising is a major influence in the modern world. Its deliberate intention is to stir up discontent. We are continually urged to buy newer, trendier, brighter, faster and more efficient products. Being consistently pounded with these messages it can be difficult to live contentedly with what we already have but that must surely be the most desirable life of all. To live with contentment is to live a life without strain and stress. Epicurus, the Greek philosopher, said, “He who doesn’t find a little enough, will find nothing enough.” There is wisdom in this quotation, but Paul wouldn’t have agreed with it. His contentment didn’t flow from a particular philosophical understanding of life but from his relationship with Christ. Because he was completely secure in his faith it didn’t matter what his personal circumstances were. Because of the continual pressures of society and of the changing circumstances of our own lives, it is a daily challenge to live with contentment. However, it can be done just so long as we keep our lives focused on Jesus. I have met many people over the years who have been wonderful illustrations of this. For one reason or another their lives have suddenly changed. Sometimes it is because of a change in their relationships or their finances but I have been particularly moved by those who have suddenly seen their health taken away from them. This is probably the biggest shock of all. How is it possible to continue to be content after the sudden loss of mobility or of eyesight? Miraculously, it is possible but only when we have learned to focus on Jesus rather than our circumstances. Question Are you content with your present life and, if not, what do you think you could do to become contented? Prayer Thank you Lord for the blessing of knowing you. Help me to live so closely to you that I will always be content. Amen

Philippians 4:8 And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honourable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Never in history have those words been more important than right now. When Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web in 1989 no one could have foreseen that it would completely transform the way in which we access information. Our mobile phones are the gateway to a world of information. This has incalculable benefits, but the downside is undeniable. It has never been easier to view destructive and depraved information. In such a situation we desperately need to hear Paul’s words. We need to become fixated on those things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Paul lived in the real world. He wasn’t inviting the Philippian Christians to hide away from their society. Being a prisoner, Paul, of all people, knew about the dark side of Roman life. He had no illusions about the world in which he lived; that probably served to reinforce his conviction that Christians needed deliberately to focus their attention on the true, the pure and the admirable. This is a big challenge for all of us in modern society. Paul knew that what goes on in a Christian’s mind is the most crucial issue of all. In Romans 12:2 he urged the Roman Christians not to “copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think”. As we welcome the true, honourable, right, pure, lovely and admirable influences into our minds, God is able to bring about that amazing transformation. Question How do you ensure that you are focusing your attention on the things that are excellent and praiseworthy? Prayer Lord God, I invite you to guide my thoughts by your Holy Spirit. Help me to become fixated on those things that will make me stronger in living for you. Amen

Philippians 4:6–7 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. The most unhelpful thing you can say to a person who is worrying is, “Don’t worry”. Even when meant kindly, it can actually increase the problems of the person who’s worrying. Not only have they got all their worries but now they need to feel guilty about it as well. Paul doesn’t fall into the trap of giving useless advice because he shows us the way out. He tells the Philippians that there is no need to worry because they can pray about everything. If you place your concerns in God’s hands then you can look to the future with confidence and thanksgiving. Jesus also recognised that worrying was a significant issue for his followers. He pointed out that it was a waste of time. He asked the question: “Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?” (Matthew 6:27). Worrying never achieves anything. I rather like the poster which reads: “Worrying is stupid. It’s like walking around with an umbrella up waiting for it to rain.” But Jesus went further and observed that there is absolutely no need to worry because God provides perfectly for all our needs. He pointed to the birds and the lilies of the field and reasoned that if God could look after them then he could clearly look after human beings. The outcome of trusting God is not merely that the worries disappear but that they are replaced by peace. To give a personal example, I was rushed into hospital a few years ago with sepsis. My blood was poisoned and my heart was racing at an unsustainable speed. As the medics treated me it was clear that I was in serious danger and I thank God that I was overwhelmed with peace. That isn’t something that I could have produced because there was nothing peaceful about the situation. It was God’s gift and I pray that you will be able to take hold of that peace whatever you face. Question How do you deal with the worries that come your way? Prayer Loving God, thank you that you can replace our worries with your miraculous gift of peace. Amen

Philippians 4:2–3 Now I appeal to Euodia and Syntyche. Please, because you belong to the Lord, settle your disagreement. And I ask you, my true partner, to help these two women, for they worked hard with me in telling others the Good News. There’s nothing new about people falling out with one another! It has been a feature of life from the very beginning, as we learn from the account of Cain and Abel (Genesis 4). The question is: what do we do when it happens? Here, Paul offers some helpful advice. The first step is for those who disagree to seek to resolve their differences. We have no idea what the women disagreed about. It must have been fairly serious for Paul to go to the trouble of referring to it in his letter. He reminded the women that they belonged to the Lord. Belonging to the same family doesn’t mean that disagreements won’t occur, but it does mean that we are not alone in seeking to resolve the situation. We can pray together and seek God’s guidance. Normally, in my experience, if there is a willingness to find a way through a disagreement, it can be found. Sometimes, however, the best that can be done is to agree to disagree. We agree to respect one another even though our views are so different and affirm our love and commitment to one another as family members. Sometimes no amount of conversation between the people who disagree resolves the situation. Paul clearly sensed that Euodia and Syntyche need some help and asked his “true partner” to offer assistance. This isn’t an easy role, but it is a vital one and it is important that every church can identify people who can act as peacemakers. This is a tough task and requires much love, grace and wisdom. There are times when even the most able peacemaker cannot resolve a situation and there needs to be an agreement to part company. This was Paul’s own experience when, after a difference of view with Barnabas, they decided to go off in different directions (Acts 15:36–41). At all costs what is vital is that disagreements are addressed and not allowed to rumble on for years, causing pain and yet further division. Question What have you found to be the best way of resolving disagreements? Prayer Lord God, help me to be a peacemaker today.