Weekly Pursuit – Week 1 of August
Verses:
Phil. 4:5-6 “Let your forbearance be known to all men. The Lord is near. In nothing be anxious, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.”
Excerpts:
Forbearance also includes peacefulness, mildness, and gentleness. If you are reasonable, considerate, and able to fit in, you will no doubt be gentle, kind, mild, and peaceful. You will also be meek and moderate, full of compassion for others.
Besides the Lord Jesus, no human being has ever practiced a life of such forbearance. If you study the biographies of famous people, you will see that not one was truly a person of forbearance. However, if you read the four Gospels, you will see that the human living of the Lord Jesus was full of forbearance. Only the Lord Jesus lived a life full of forbearance, and only Christ can be our perfect forbearance today. The best word to sum up the totality of Christ’s human virtues is forbearance. To make known our forbearance is to live a life that expresses Christ; it is to express the Christ by whom we live. Such a life is Christ Himself as the totality of all human virtues.
In Philippians 4:5 Paul says, “The Lord is near.” He is with us. When we live Him, taking Him as our pattern and counting all things as loss in order to gain Him, we sense that He is present with us. He is near both in space and in time. With respect to space, He is near to us, ready to help; with regard to time, He is at hand, coming soon. Since the Lord is near, what need is there for us to be troubled and stirred up? (Life-study of Philippians, msg. 57)
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