Hiding Philippians In My Heart

 

In late August of 2020 I was overwhelmed with everything that was going on in our world and how I, as a believer, was to live in response to it.  Collectively we were in the middle of a pandemic.  There was tense racial division and protesting because of the death of George Floyd in my home state and in states across the county.  An important presidential election was coming in a few months and people were very passionate about their candidate, some to the point of idol worship it seemed.  Conspiracy theories abounded.  Social media was a hotbed of opinions and sadly, so much hatred.  Stress and anxiety were high for many as families were still dealing with job loss, changes to their jobs, finances, schooling for their children and lots of loss and grief.  

I was weary, discouraged and praying, "Lord, how do you want me to live in response to everything that is happening in our world?"  At the time I happened to be in the book of Philippians in my personal Bible reading.  One morning as I was reading chapter 1 I came across the following phrase.

"...striving side by side for the faith of the gospel."

All around me there was striving...

Striving for this political candidate or that one  

Striving for masks or no masks

Striving for justice or revenge

Striving above the opinions of others so that yours could be heard.

But here was my answer.  The striving that I, as a Christ follower was to be involved in was to be for the gospel.   Did I have personal opinions about the other things?  Of course I did, but God spoke to my heart that day.  He reminded me of what was really important and that was the hope of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  All around me people were hurting and discouraged.  I had the answer.  Jesus Christ.  Was I faithfully sharing that or was I busy being a keyboard warrior? 

As I read through Philippians and meditated on it, I thought that this would be a timely book to memorize. I figured that I could easily memorize it over the next year and began in earnest.  I didn't meet my goal to have all 4 chapters memorized in one year but I am not giving up.  For whatever reason memorizing seems to be a little harder for me than it has been in the past. 😊  It's taken me 1 year to memorize the first 2 chapters and I plan to take this year and finish up with chapters 3 and 4.  Hiding Philippians in my heart has helped me to keep my focus on what is important in the middle of all the chaos.  Hiding Philippians in my heart has brought peace and hope to my soul that the world cannot take from me, no matter what is going on around me.  

Are you currently working on memorizing God's word?  I'd love to know what passages of Scripture you are committing to memory.