What Are You Living For?
Updated: 7 days ago
Most of us keep some kind of plan. It might be a calendar full of color-coded blocks, a savings goal, or a loose picture of where we want to be in five years. Then a door closes, a doctor asks for more tests, or a company announces layoffs, and the plan we were so sure about gets set aside. Anyone with a little time under their belt has seen it happen. God has a way of interrupting our plans, sometimes asking us to wait when we want to go and sometimes sending us when we would rather stay. When the plan breaks, what keeps us steady is whatever we were really living for the whole time, and most of us do not find out what that is until we need it.
A PRISONER WHO DECIDED TO REJOICE
Paul wrote to the Philippians from prison while he waited on a tribunal. He did not know whether he would be released or executed. His life ran on two commitments, the glory of Christ and the good of other people, and the first of those is what held him up when everything else was uncertain.
Listen to how he talks about the future. "Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance." (Philippians 1:18-19) Pastor Danny pointed out that Paul has moved from "I rejoice" to "I will rejoice." He looks past what God has already done and commits to rejoicing over whatever comes next. Danny called that "anti-human," since our natural tendency is to run through everything that could go wrong.
So why could Paul do it? Danny's answer was direct. Most of us, himself included, carry a built-in ambition to simply keep on living. When that is the goal, every threat to our comfort also feels like a threat to our relationship with God. Life goes well and we feel close to Him. Trouble arrives and we start asking how He could let this happen. Paul's future was uncertain, yet his relationship with Christ was settled, which is why Christian joy rests on who Christ is to us while happiness depends on what happens to us.
A DIFFERENT SET OF GLASSES
Paul says what he is eagerly expecting: "with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death." (Philippians 1:20) In the Roman world, imprisonment and execution were designed to humiliate. A trial looked like a disaster to everyone watching. Paul looked at the same courtroom and saw a room full of people who were about to hear of the grace and mercy of Christ. The only shame he feared was staying silent about Jesus.
Danny compared it to an old movie about a man who finds strange glasses and sees the world differently every time he puts them on. Paul's comfort and his verdict were never the measure of how his life was going. The honor of Christ was the measure, and a prison cell, a courtroom, or a long ministry could each serve it.
PRAYER IS PART OF THE WORK
Paul says it will turn out well through "your prayers and the help of the Spirit," which means he is in prison without being alone. The Philippians are praying and the Spirit is helping. Danny used that to ask a pointed question. If we all say we believe in prayer, why are our prayer times so sparsely attended?
He reminded the church that nobody is ever required to pray out loud. You can come, sit, pray quietly, and learn to pray by listening to others. He also asked whether someone in the congregation has never been prayed for, a person who slips in late and leaves early. Cornerstone prays before and after the service and has a monthly prayer time, and those are good places to start learning names.
WHAT CANNOT CARRY THE WEIGHT
Then comes the sentence Paul builds everything on. "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." (Philippians 1:21) Danny noted that the Greek has no verbs here. Literally it reads "To live, Christ. To die, gain." Christ is the foundation, center, and direction of Paul's whole life, including the parts lived in the mud and the brokenness. If living is Christ, then dying is gain because it brings Paul into His presence. Either way, Paul wins.
Most of us divide life into family, work, church, and social circles, and we treat them like separate rooms. Every one of them is a gift from God. Danny warned that "none of these things can bear the weight of being our ultimate purpose." If your life is your career, what happens when you lose your job? If it is your health, what happens when it declines? If it is your family, what happens when a child or spouse disappoints you? Anything other than Christ at the center ends up controlling your joy, and a life built on Christ stands on a firm foundation.
WHAT GETS YOUR BEST
Danny left the congregation with a question. If someone watched your life for a month, what would they decide is most important to you? He asked what gets your time, your energy, your money, your attention, and your best. Paul never described Christ as one important thing among many. For him, to live was Christ.
One step for this week: set aside ten minutes with last month's calendar and bank statement, and write one honest sentence about what they say you are living for. Then pray that sentence back to God, asking that Christ be honored in your life whether He gives you much or little, health or weakness, many years or few.
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