“Things” in Our Lives

“But I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel; So that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace, and in all other places” Philippians 1:12,13.

What ‘things’ are you going through these days?  Are ‘things’ going well, or are there ‘things’ in your life that are very difficult to handle right now?  We all have our ‘things that happen to us’ and how we face them says a lot about our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

In the above scripture it’s as though Paul is saying, “Oh yeah, some stuff happened to me— I was put in prison, in chains and I may lose my life, but it’s no big deal to me.  I don’t really matter; it’s the Gospel that matters.  I’m dispensable; God ‘s Word is not!” Even though Paul was in prison things were well with him.  God was working through him.  He was bound, but the saving Gospel of Christ was not bound and that’s all that was really important to him.

Oh that I might have that kind of Godly and trusting disposition—to see everything through the eyes of the Lord.  There are many times that we will and even should share the trials we are going through, but we need to be sure to do it with God in mind, realizing that we never have more trials than we can bear.  God can, and often does bring great blessing and joy through the ‘things’ which happen to us

It’s fascinating to me that the Holy Spirit would lead Paul to use this language and speak of his troubles and trials as things—just things, and nothing more.  In and of themselves they were lifeless.  They could not hurt him, but instead could do much good.  It reminds me of this great truth: “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” Romans 8:28.

You know, when we are in the battle of our trouble, all we seem to know is the battle itself even though we want to get victory.  But in time we will be able to see how God is burning out the dross of our lives to bring forth the gold.  In time we my come to see that “the things which are seen are temporal (temporary), but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18).   Believe it or not, we can even learn to glory in our trouble by faith!                                                                  (See also Gen. 50:20; Job 23:10; Acts 9:16; 20:24; Rom. 8:35-39; 2 Cor. 12:7-10)