Application of God's Word

Hebrews 13:5 … “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” I know what it is to have the weight of the world on your shoulders, to feel like at any minute you are going to break. I know how it feels to be surrounded by people and feel alone. I know what it feels like to believe that no one will ever understand you. I know how it feels to let someone into your world, trusting that maybe if I open up, someone will finally understand

11 Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. 12 I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. Philippians 4:11-12 Paul said he learned to be content in whatever state he was in. He knew what it was to be abased (in a low state) and how to abound (fulfilled) and in whatever state or situation he was in, he was content. I like that Paul said he had to learn to be content in those situations. This means that this did not happen overnight, it was a process. This learning process may have taken a while or maybe not long at all. At first, I can imagine Paul may have asked God, "Why me? Why are these things happening to me? We have to remember that Paul was a man who survived shipwrecks, imprisonment, beatings, and near-death experiences, but yet he spoke of contentment. Would we have been content ...

"Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. 32 And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you." - Ephesians 4:31-32 On my way home, I forgot my bible in church so I turned around to retrieve it. By the time I got there, the church grounds were cleared but the pastor’s car was still there. I opened the church doors and shouting and screaming greeted me. As I got closer, I thought it was the drama team rehearsing but then the profanities were