Don’t Even Realize How Good You Have It
Philippians 4:4-12 Amplified Bible (AMP)
4 Rejoice in the Lord always [delight, gladden yourselves in Him]; again I say, Rejoice! 5 Let all men know and perceive and recognize your unselfishness (your considerateness, your forbearing spirit). The Lord is near [He is coming soon].6 Do not fret or have any anxiety about anything, but in every circumstance and in everything, by prayer and petition (definite requests), with thanksgiving, continue to make your wants known to God.7 And God’s peace [shall be yours, that tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God and being content with its earthly lot of whatever sort that is, that peace] which transcends all understanding shall garrison and mount guard over your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.8 For the rest, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is worthy of reverence and is honorable and seemly, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely and lovable, whatever is kind and winsome and gracious, if there is any virtue and excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think on and weigh and take account of these things [fix your minds on them].9 Practice what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and model your way of living on it, and the God of peace (of untroubled, undisturbed well-being) will be with you. 10 I was made very happy in the Lord that now you have revived your interest in my welfare after so long a time; you were indeed thinking of me, but you had no opportunity to show it.11 Not that I am implying that I was in any personal want, for I have learned how to be content (satisfied to the point where I am not disturbed or disquieted) in whatever state I am.12 I know how to be abased and live humbly in straitened circumstances, and I know also how to enjoy plenty and live in abundance. I have learned in any and all circumstances the secret of facing every situation, whether well-fed or going hungry, having a sufficiency and enough to spare or going without and being in want.
I have been extremely tired recently, but in the place that I am presently I am learning not to complain, why because I have realized that living through certain seasons in my life, my life could be vastly different and so much worse. Even with many of the struggles I experience now, I am learning to pray, walk and live in faith and keep it moving, because I realize how good I actually have it. One of the things that I tell me young adults when they get into a place of “what they don’t have, can’t afford or their friends are acting crazy,” I will graciously remind them, their lives could be so much worse. I remind them of the children I saw living on the streets in Panama. The record numbers of homeless people in Hawaii (Paradise of all places), and all those who do not have the opportunities that they have and been afforded. I remind them it may not be perfect but they are blessed!
We have become a nation and generation of complainers and soft individuals that cannot handle adversity in the least; we have come to a place where we think we should be comfortable all the time at every cost with little work or effort. Our work ethic is horrible, we want things our way all the time and when we don’t get it, our frustration will lead us to a barrage of complaints and attitudes in an effort to make people pay for our discomfort. Or we just begin to throw a tantrum because life isn’t giving us what we want. We vow to treat people as they treat us instead of understanding that God requires us to live according to His Word regardless of what people do or do not do. We have turned to complaining about everything instead of understanding that we should feel blessed to be alive, have a home, food on our plates, family to come home to and love to experience. I am by no means saying that life does not become challenging and difficult, but, the word of God reminds us to give thanks in ALL THINGS. Paul wrote that he learned to be content in whatever state he found himself in. God’s word also reminds us that in our lives we will experience trial, but there is a purpose and that purpose is in the development of character, hope, and perseverance. But that is a part of many of our issues is that we just want it our way, without having to develop any self-control, humility, submission or character.
Even when we are so blessed we find a way to see what we don’t have. Even when we have a home, a family and we are healthy we find a way to miss all that we do have and all that we should be grateful for, to focus on what is missing, what is absent and we do not have the ability to obtain presently. My Grandmother even when she had to raise five children alone after losing her husband tragically, still proclaimed the Lord was good and He was a good God who had blessed her with so much. My mother the day, my father passed away, was not looking at her lose she was looking at how blessed she had been to share a total of fifty four years with my father. We have a choice, in everything that we do and in everything that we experience to see the blessings of the Lord and how faithful He has been, or to complain about all we are not getting our way in and all that we feel that we still may need and want. If we would only choose to look to the Word of God for our responses and to learn to live in the world and not of it, we would be in a place of find ourselves seeing the truth of how Blessed we really are. If we would look to Philippians 4: 5 in order to understand how we should operate and the attitude we should exhibit towards others, we would stop being self-serving, selfish and lacking humility. We would understand that we are blessed and are created with a purpose and unto good works, and not unto complaints, whining and just be mean because we are not in a place that we want to be. We need to pray to see with new eyes, the eyes of Christ that show us the truth of our situation. It is time to take the blinders off and see what God has truly and really blessed us with!
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