Phil. 1:6

"Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ" Phil. 1:6

Paul was facing a true life-or-death situation. Every time the door opened Paul was confronted with the possibility that the news would be that Caesar had decided his case and he would be executed on the morrow, and Paul lived that way for a couple of years! I don't know that I could endure that. I am certain that my fears would make me a very nasty person to be around. It wasn't so with Paul.

His first reaction was to give thanks. He had various reasons. He wrote to the Philippians to express his thankfulness for their lives! I would have written begging them to pray for my soon release! Paul expresses his confidence that God would complete the work that He had accomplished in Philippi through Paul's ministry. His body may be in chains in Rome, but his spirit was with the saints in Philippi.

Paul spends several verses talking about the mutual relationship these saints and Paul had. He shares with them the special place he holds in his heart for them. He encourages them. He ministers to them. He is totally upbeat. Even though he expresses the uncertainty of his situation, there is no doubt that he has total confidence that his fate is in the hands of God, and that he is content with God's decision.

We can speculate all we want about how we would react to a serious threat to our lives. We may have total confidence in our faith in God to see us through. Or, we may express our doubts and fears. But in the end, all of this is pure speculation. Conversation about the unlikely breeds confidence in our own strength.

The real measure of how we would do then is how we face the comparatively small tribulations we face every day. How do you react when some person cuts you off in traffic? How do you react when your phone bill arrives, and the bottom line says you owe HK$2,500.00. How do you react when the checker drops the dozen eggs you placed on the conveyor, and you know for a fact that was the last dozen eggs in the store? See what I mean? These minor tribulations cause our blood pressure to jump to new heights, our faces to flush as though a volcano is ready to erupt, and our palms are clenched in an effort to control our anger.

OK. You don't do any of those things. How do you react when your little child wakes up screaming in the middle of the night, for the fifteenth night running? What do you say when your bosses secretary hands you a pink slip, with no explanation as to why you are released from your job? How do you react when the doctor says the cancer is back, and there is little hope for remission? Do you scream at God asking why He would do such a thing to you?

Now you can begin to see how you would react if faced with a trial such as Paul's.

So how do we change our ways? We can begin now to do as Paul did. We can give thanks for the good things God has done. We can be an encouragement to the brothers and sisters around us. If we can do it in the face of the little things, we can perhaps do it when we face the really big problems. Amen and Amen.