Our all-sufficient King Jesus invites us to a table that is rich with goodness and full of everlasting satisfaction. Though we are undeserving, broken, and lame we are made sons and daughters of the King and He has called us by name to feast at His table. What a beautiful invitation!

The Scriptures teach that the way of Jesus leads to a different kind of life than most of us experience—one characterized by freedom, joy, peace, hope, and rest. Jesus calls it “life abundantly.” This life is a gift from God, but it requires us to say no to many things our culture promotes as the way to happiness. But, living in a counter-cultural way, saying no to what is easy takes discipline and commitment. The only way we can exercise the self-control it takes to fully embrace God’s more difficult way is if we actually believe that God is good, that he loves us, and that he desires good for us. This understanding of God is foundational. Without a deep conviction of God’s generous disposition toward us our desires will turn and our self-discipline will falter.

Revive Us

The Scriptures make it clear that we were once dead in our sins but God’s gift of grace makes us alive in Christ. This miraculous saving work of God is something that should leave us standing in great awe, yet we oftentimes find ourselves like David in Psalm 51 where we need to cry out to God to restore to us the joy of his salvation. Salvation, more than anything else gives us reason to celebrate, to rejoice, to sing, to shout and to dance. When the dead are made alive, we join in with heaven and we rejoice with joy inexpressible!

Revive Us

The narrative God writes throughout the Bible is the story of a loving Father who wants to give His kids the greatest gift ever—which happens to be Himself. In His kindness, He wired us to be dependent upon Him for every breath so that we would stay constantly connected to the gift. Without God, we’d cease to exist and that understanding is the foundation we need to fuel the fire of our unquenchable need for him.

We need to slow down and catch our breath…rather…catch His breath. We need a supernatural move of God to renew, restore, and revive us. That is not something we can muster up in our own strength. We cannot force God’s hand…so instead, we let go, release control and draw near to Him, because the one necessary thing in life is to sit at the feet of our King Jesus and receive from Him whatever it is He has for us there.

As we conclude the book of Philippians we look back to recognize the incredible wonder of how God has gifted the church with this incredible letter to the church in Philippi. What grace it is from God to remind us that we are now living as joyful citizens of a new kingdom. And that because heaven is our home, our contentment is not found in our present circumstances but in the transcendence of knowing Christ our Lord.

This week we see the incredible impact that is made when the people of God choose to sacrificially partner together to make the gospel known. Paul expresses his gratitude to the Philippian church for their consistent, generous investment in the Kingdom, and his confidence in a faithfully sufficient God to meet all of our needs.

The invitation of the book of Philippians is to be joyful in light of the gospel despite our circumstances. Though we often rate the quality of our lives by our circumstances, God’s kingdom provides us another way when we recognize that God has already provided for what we truly need. Then we can accept our circumstances with joy, because we can do everything through Christ who gives us strength.