Malachi 4:2 “But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall.”

“You who revere my name” is practically another way of saying, “You who believe in the gospel.” God’s name is not just the letters G-O-D or L-O-R-D. It is his good name, his whole saving reputation. When God explained his name to Moses on Mt. Sinai, these are the things he emphasized: “the gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in love, forgiving wickedness, rebellion, and sin.”

Ever afterward, that became a repeating theme, the way people who believed in him understood him. Five hundred years after Moses, David used almost the same words to describe the Lord in several Psalms. One hundred and fifty years after that these became the words of the Prophet Joel, and then Jonah, and after the Babylonian exile we find them again in Nehemiah–gracious, compassionate, loving, forgiving. That is the God the true believers in the Old Testament knew.

Jesus, of course, personifies all of that in the New Testament. His very name means that God saves people from their sins. He made that grace, compassion, love, and forgiveness real and tangible when he gave his life as the sacrifice for sins at the cross. And since then God has made the name of Jesus the name that is above every other name, the only name under heaven by which we must be saved.

For those who revere God’s name, who know and trust him this way, that bright shining light we see when the Day comes is not the fire of God’s justice, but “the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings.” Does that remind you of a Christmas carol? “Hail the heavenly Prince of Peace! Hail the Sun of Righteousness! Light and Life to all he brings, risen with healing in his wings.” When Charles Wesley wrote those words to Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, he understood that Jesus is the Sun of Righteousness, the Great Light that heals us. And while his first coming provided the medicine that heals us from our sins, it is his second coming that completes the healing of our bodies and souls, hearts and minds.

With the extermination of sin comes the elimination of all its consequences. That means complete healing, real healing for the bodies in which we live. The surgeon took half my thyroid out several years ago. While that means I don’t have a dangerous growth there anymore, it also means that I have half a working gland, a scar, and a lifetime of monitoring to show for it.

Many men and women I know have received knee replacements over the years. The new one will only last another 20 years or so, and then it will wear out, too. Maybe you take pills for diabetes, or high blood pressure, or some other condition. These may allow you to function now, but stop taking them and see what happens. They cover up and allow us to cope. They don’t cure and heal.

The Day is coming when the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in his wings. These bodies will be transformed, restored, perfected, not taped and tied together so that we can limp along a little longer. We will know, finally, what it means to be completely whole, and well, and free.

I have seen a wedding day turn a bride into bridezilla. I have seen surgery day paralyze a patient with fear. I have seen the day of the big game make strong, fit, 250 pound athletes lose their lunch. God’s day, THE day, is coming soon. It promises to turn us into creatures fit for heaven.

Malachi 4:1 All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire, says the Lord Almighty. Not a root or a branch will be left to them.”

Sometimes the Lord inflicts pain to discipline the people he loves, just like a good parent. The word “discipline” comes from the same word from which we get “disciple.” It is a form of teaching. The psychologists would call it “negative reinforcement.” Or, as an old friend of mine used to say, it is “applied psychology” (with the “application” of the hand to the backside of the child).

The goal of God’s discipline is to make a person better. It corrects them and puts them on a better path. It helps them grow as a person. It takes a thousand different forms in the consequences we suffer for our behavior from youth to old age.

That is not what God is doing to the arrogant and the evildoer on the day of judgment. This is justice. It is payment. No one is getting better. Malachi says these people “will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire…Not a root or a branch will be left to them.” Maybe you have seen an area after a forest or grass fire has gone through. At first, everything looks dead and gone. But after some time and some rain, green growth appears again. Not in this case. Not even a root is left. The Lord isn’t clearing the field for future growth. He is simply clearing the field when his day comes with fire.

Does this seem out of character with what we know about God’s love and mercy? It can be hard to make God’s “justice” and “mercy” fit comfortably together inside our heads and hearts. But both characteristics of our God are true. And both are good.

In his book The Problem of Pain, C.S. Lewis paints a picture of a particularly bad man who rises to wealth and power by treachery and cruelty. He exploits his victims with no feelings of conscience and laughs at them. He betrays his own friends along the way. He goes to his grave with no guilt, no regrets. He believes that he alone has figured out the secret to life. Everyone else is a fool. He was not willing to be converted in this life, and he is certainly not going to convert to God’s point of view in the life to come.

What is the proper fate for such a person? Is it just a sinful desire for revenge that we want to keep him out of heaven, that we think that somehow he should suffer for what he has become? No, something inside us tell us that it is right that there are consequences, and that those consequences should be neither easy or pleasant. Such never ending enemies of goodness and love should not be rewarded. Even if such a person can’t be converted, it is better that he be confronted with his spiritual failure rather than live in the illusion that he got it right. The fires of God’s justice serve just a purpose.

Lewis reminds us that the Lord does not produce descriptions of the day he comes with justice for people who will never read or hear or believe them. He writes them for us. He is giving us warning. He is calling us to repent of the things that keep us from God. He writes them so that we can escape the fire on the coming day. We are the children he intends to spare and rescue, not the enemies he needs to eliminate. For those who repent and believe, God’s justice falls on his Son Jesus Christ instead of the sinners who had it coming.

Malachi 4:1 “Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire, says the Lord Almighty. Not a root or a branch will be left to them.”

The Big Day: Just three little words that serve up big helpings of anxiety. Maybe the first thing that comes to mind when you hear them is a wedding. Few events that people plan cause more stress. But depending on the context, maybe it is the day of the championship game, or the day you defend your dissertation for your Ph.D., or the day you make the big pitch to the company president for the great new product you thought of, or the day you go under the knife for open heart surgery.

They are all important days. They promise to be life-changing, and if everything goes right, “the Big Day” will be one of the greatest experiences you ever have. But just because so much is riding on it, it is also a day we approach with a sense of dread.

The Bible knows its own “Big Day.” It is so big that it doesn’t even need the word “big” to describe it. Across the Old and New Testaments, it is simply known as “The Day.” The prophet Malachi paints a picture of that day in these words from the last chapter of the Old Testament. This day, he warns will be a day of judgment.

Few things have become less acceptable to people than “judging others,” but people of all sorts do it…a lot. Some object, “Only God can judge.” While there is some truth to that, those who prefer to be judged by God than by people may want to rethink their preference. God’s judgment, Malachi points out, is coming with fire.

The Day of Judgment is going to be a very bad day for the arrogant and the evil doer, though they themselves probably don’t believe it. The irony of arrogance is that the very thing that makes you bad is your opinion of the thing you think makes you better.

On the one side you have the smug sinner. A man I know builds expensive custom cabinets and furniture of the highest quality for the rich and famous. Several years ago he finished an expensive project for a wealthy man. The cost ran well into five figures. After everything was done, his well-to-do customer insisted he would pay him only a fraction of the price agreed upon. He had no complaints about the workmanship. He actually liked it a lot. He didn’t lack the money to pay. But he considered himself a savvy businessman, and he told my friend that if he took him to court, my friend would owe at least the difference in legal fees and lost time. It was better just to accept the discount. And he was right. Mr. Moneybags was rather pleased with himself for being such a shrewd businessman. Actually, he should be ashamed of himself. But that’s how arrogance works.

On the other side you have the snobby saint. The Pharisees of Jesus’ day generally provide a good example–people so satisfied with their own moral behavior that they believe God himself must be impressed with them. Listen to the way that you, and I, and your fellow Christians criticize the misbehaviors of other people. When our tone is more like that of an angry activist, breathing out fire and condemnation, and less like that of grieved and concerned friend, sincerely saddened by the way someone is straying, we are probably showing our own inner Pharisee. The problem with this kind of arrogance is that it is often harder to detect in ourselves because it is hiding beneath a thin moral veneer. We think we look like the good guys.

Malachi’s words serve notice on our arrogance. They call us to repent before the day arrives. And if your high opinion of yourself has led to a painful fall somewhere along the way, if God used it to humble you and break you, consider it a blessing. God’s big day is coming with fire. It won’t be a good day for the arrogant and the evil doer. But those who repent find his grace and forgiveness. That is why he gives us warning. He wants to purify us now, to save us, before the day when his purifying fire simply wipes the sinners away.

Romans 13:12b-14 “So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.”

Living in the light is a matter of taking something off and putting something on. Off goes a lifestyle that simply lets our urges and desires run wild. There are three word pairs here, and each word in the pair is loosely connected. With orgies and drunkenness Paul is saying, “You can’t join your neighbors in losing all self-control and decency in hard partying and drinking. It is not wrong to get together to feast and celebrate. It is not wrong to have an alcoholic beverage. But those who live in the light won’t let either drinks or desires turn them into a different kind of person than they are when they are stone-cold sober.”

The second pair focuses more on our sexual behavior. Again, Paul isn’t saying that sex is evil. But living in the light means we will have nothing to do with it when it is not between one man and one woman who have taken a vow of marriage. Christians understand that it is not just for recreation and fun between consenting adults. God has a higher purpose for it, one that requires the stability of a life-long commitment.

The last pair, dissension and jealousy, deals with the angry passions. Believers find it much too easy to imitate their unbelieving neighbors in the first two sets of sins we have mentioned. But at least among believers, there is still some recognition that there is sin involved in them?

If the kind of language I hear coming out of professed Christians’ mouths is any indication, or the kind of things I see them post on Facebook gives any insight, then I am not sure that even many Christians recognize the problem with this last set. We have become inclined to defend our anger and its expression instead of regretting of it. Like the rest, off it has to come in repentance.

In place of all this “darkness” Paul urges, “Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.” Off goes sin. On goes Jesus. Clothing ourselves with Jesus begins with simply trusting him. We stop with the rationalizations, the defenses, the excuses for our bad behavior. We trust him when he calls it sin and calls us to repent. Even more, we see his perfect life of love, his sacrifice and death as our substitute, his payment for our sins, his resurrection to new life and ascension to power. We trust him when he forgives us, offers us grace, invites us into God’s family, and gives us new life.

When we do, Jesus comes and lives inside of us. We know his power. We take on a new identity. It changes us. You know how dressing up can affect how you feel about yourself, your confidence, your behavior. If you put on wedding formals, and you know you look sharp, and you start to act the part. You carry yourself with dignity. You are civil and well-mannered. You are gracious and charming. Okay, maybe some people can become arrogant and insufferable, too. But dressing up can change things inside as well as out.

When we put our faith in Jesus we become new men and women. It is like dressing ourselves up in Christ, putting him on, only it is not an act. Jesus begins the process of making us more like him, and the more we look to him in faith, the more we focus on his love, the more like him we become. With the return of Jesus nearer every day, there is no time like the present to live in the light of his grace and love.

Romans 13:11-12“The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here.”

Sometimes, when the Bible uses slumber or sleep as a metaphor, it is talking about unbelief. At other times “sleep” is a picture of death. I think it’s clear that Paul is writing this letter to members of a Christian church, so he assumes that they are spiritually awake by faith. And obviously he wouldn’t write a book of the Bible to dead people. “Slumber” here has to refer to something else.

Sometimes we Christians let our faith become quite lukewarm. There is very little fire in our belly for loving our neighbor or reaching the lost. Our prayers lack fervency and grow fewer and farther between. We aren’t much concerned about getting to know God better. If we still go to church or Bible study, it is mostly a matter of habit, going through the motions. We have stopped feeling a need or desire to be there. If the church grows, we feel no particular joy. If it struggles and shrinks, we feel no sense of alarm. We could always go somewhere else, or do something else, on a Sunday.

The problem is that we have become far too distracted by our purely earthly circumstances. We pour our energy into having the things we want, achieving the lifestyle and experiences we desire. Have you seen the movie The Bucket List? Two men fighting cancer make a list of things they want to do before they die, and then they go on the world’s greatest road trip. One of them even tries to convince the other of God’s existence along the way. There is nothing wrong with going skydiving, or climbing Mt. Everest, or visiting the pyramids, if you can do it. But this is not why God chose you as his own, or the purpose for which he has left you here.

What if you never earn that degree for which you study, or land the job on which you set your heart? What if your career goes nowhere? What if you never find love or raise a family? What if you never build the house you planned to make your home, or your retirement doesn’t turn out the way you dreamed? Don’t misunderstand me. All of these things may occupy a legitimate part of our time and attention. They are good and wholesome in and of themselves.

But if they leave no place for God; if they move into a place ahead of God, chances are we need Paul’s words to confront us. “The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber.” The time has come to wake up. Spiritually, we are asleep and of no use for something much more important.

Why is it so vital that we wake up and understand the present time? “because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here.” We may be used to people speaking about “salvation” happening when we come to faith. It’s almost always what Christians mean when they ask, “Are you saved?” Have you come to faith in Jesus yet? Often the Bible uses the word that way.

But salvation is God’s work of rescue. Sometimes it refers to Jesus and his saving life and death, as Simeon meant when he took the baby Jesus in his arms and said, “…my eyes have seen your salvation which you have prepared in the sight of all people” (Luke 2:30-31). Here it is clear that salvation refers to God’s final rescue, when he puts a final end to all his enemies and takes us away to heaven’s safety.

That is nearer every day. More than that, “The night is nearly over, the day is almost here.” Jesus could return at any time, or he could end our lives in this world at any time, and our days here are limited. I don’t know about you, but there are people I know personally whose own salvation is doubtful at best. The clock is running out on our time to win them.

Perhaps I can’t spend every moment of every day trying to work on them and their faith. Living a life of love goes beyond personal witness and evangelism. It helps support our lives of witness and evangelism. But it ought not become the reason we neglect personal witness and evangelism. We need to understand the present time. It is time to wake up and put our faith to work, because the night of this world is almost over, and the day of heaven is almost here.

Philippians 3:20-21 “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.”

Do you notice something about these people who are following Paul’s godly example? It is not their behavior, their lifestyle, he emphasizes. It is their faith. It is their fate.

He starts with our identity: “But our citizenship is in heaven.” How is that even possible? We haven’t lived one second in heaven our entire lives. I have known a number of people who came to the U.S. from other countries and became naturalized American citizens. They all moved here first. It’s not even possible to become a U.S. citizen without first becoming a legal resident. Then there are classes to attend, and tests to pass, and oaths to take. It is a lot of work.

Our citizenship in heaven was no work at all. It was purely a gift, a matter of God’s grace. Instead of starting by moving us there, the Lord moved himself here and became a citizen of our world. He passed every test of goodness and love with his perfect life. He removed every obstacle to our heavenly citizenship by taking our sins with him to the cross and disposing of them all there. He claimed us at our baptisms, sent his Spirit into our hearts and sealed us as his very own. In his word he still promises on oath that we are his, and he is ours by faith. We may live in the United States of America. Someday we may move to some other state, or even another country. But our citizenship is in heaven.

That citizenship is first of all a privilege to enjoy. We should take a moment just to appreciate the love of God in making us so. Then let’s understand that citizenship implies certain responsibilities. It is followed by a certain way of life. Heavenly citizenship means living and acting like the angels, and the believers of the past who now worship God around his throne. It is a holy life. It is a loving life. It is a godly life, following the godly example Paul wants us to follow.

Not because we have paid our way, but because we have received God’s gift, those who embrace this faith and godly life end in glory. There our Lord Jesus “will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.” Almost every day I hear or read some new story about how this world is going to end in catastrophe. One week it is the super volcano underneath Yellowstone National Park. If it blows, they say, it could plunge the world into a deep freeze that would destroy the human race. The next week it is new worries about another super disease like COVID. Then there are fears of a collision with a rogue asteroid. Climate change, nuclear war–it’s not just religious fanatics who go around saying “the end is near.”

The people of our world dream of getting on a space ship and escaping before the world comes to an end. Science fiction moviesallow them to explore the fantasy. We have Paul’s promise here that the Lord has already arranged our escape. Jesus is returning with his angels to rescue us, transform us, and take us home.

Then our lowly bodies will be like his glorious body. The details for this change we will have to wait to see. Will we be able to appear in a place and disappear at will, as Jesus did after he rose from the dead? We will be able to float like he did at his ascension? The last detailed description we have of him in the Bible goes like this: “His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining it all its brilliance.”

However the details come together, our story ends in glory. Until then we follow the godly examples of those who believed his promises and lived like citizens of another world, a heavenly one.

Philippians 3:17-19 “Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we have you. For as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things.”

It has been said that God’s way is a narrow middle road, and there is a ditch on either side. That was true in Paul’s day, too. In his letters there are two kinds of “enemies of the cross of Christ,” two alternatives, rutting around in the ditch on either side of God’s way.

The Philippians lived in the pagan world of the Roman empire. Their religious convictions were an easy-going, anything-goes spirituality that tolerated just about any kind of superstition and embraced more gods than you could count. About the only kind of religion they didn’t like was the exclusive, one-way-to-heaven kind of religion the Christians and Jews believed.

They also didn’t care much for what Christianity had to teach about moral behavior. They liked their morals like they liked their religion: just about anything goes. In this way, they were enemies of the cross of Christ. The cross may promise forgiveness, but to get to forgiveness there is this messy process of admitting your sin and repenting of it. It is so much easier to believe that God doesn’t really care how I live my life.

The ditch on the other side of the road came from those who wanted to take the grace out of Christianity. They were called Judaizers. For them it was not enough to confess your sins and be forgiven. You had to keep the law well enough yourself, including all the Old Testament rules about food and ceremonies. For them salvation was Jesus plus your own works, and that made them enemies of the cross of Christ, too. Paul had just been warning the Christians in Philippi about these false teachers earlier in this same chapter.

Our times aren’t so different, are they. We are still surrounded by people rutting around in both these ditches. Several years ago the so-called “Me Too” movement began. It became an exposé of men from Hollywood, the business world, and politicians who sexually harassed women and used their power to have their way with them. To hear our world talk about it, they seemed to be baffled. “How did we ever get to such a point?”

Do you suppose it might have something to do with the fact that for more than a half a century we have been setting people free to pursue every kind of sexual perversion you can think of? In a world where we have dropped all the boundaries and criticize good old-fashioned self-control, is it a surprise that some have taken the pursuit of what they want this far?

I’m not saying we lived in a utopia of purity before the so-called “sexual revolution.” But our adoption of more or less pagan morals has been laying the foundation for a boatload of human misery.

And we Christians have been jumping on the live-any-way-you-want, believe-whatever-you-want bandwagon at practically the same rate as everybody else. In a similar vein, Paul wrote to the Galatians: “Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction.”

Don’t forget the ditch on the other side. It hasn’t become empty since Paul wrote so long ago. American Christianity is often reduced to little more than a society for successful living. Eat this. Don’t drink that. Here are the entertainments on the approved list. We develop our own set of ceremonial laws.

I once knew an otherwise Christian lady who came close to saying that drinking milk, (Milk!), was a problem for your relationship with God. I have nothing against healthy living and practical advice, but is this how we save the world? This is just another take on “their god is their stomach,” and “their mind is on earthly things.” All the while the cross of Christ gets pushed farther and farther into the background of Christian consciousness.

A Christianity so obsessed with improving day-to-day life that it no longer has room to call people to repent and be forgiven is not a friend of the cross of Christ. Without Jesus and his cross, we fare no better than the pagan world in which we live. “Their destiny is destruction.” This is the result of minds set on earthly things.

1 Timothy 2:1-4 “I urge then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone– for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”

At Thanksgiving we offer our prayers for all the various blessings God has given. I would like you to join me in taking a moment to consider one of those blessings in particular, one we might easily overlook: those who govern us.

Thanksgiving is one of the types of prayers Paul urges for those in authority. It is not hard to understand why. They make it possible “for us to live peaceful and quiet lives.” Nowhere has that been more true than in our own nation.

Few countries have enjoyed the kind of peace and quiet Americans have known for over a century. The civil war was the last time any battles were fought on our soil. Our homes and cities aren’t continually looted by enemy soldiers. They aren’t burned and bombed by enemy armies. We may take that for granted. Historically, it has been a rare blessing to enjoy that kind of peace so long.

We can be thankful we are allowed to gather for worship without fear of having the police storm in to break up our service. No one tries to force us to worship a false god, as the Romans tried to impose their emperor worship on the early Christians. No one tries to force us to worship God in a false way, as pope and emperor did at the time of the Lutheran Reformation. We don’t have to worship in secret, as Christians still do in many Islamic countries, China, or North Korea. Thank God our leaders, and our government, allow us to live our lives in “godliness and holiness.”

Beyond these freedoms, we can thank God for the law and order which generally prevail in our country. It may be far from perfect, but look at how many people are fleeing their own countries to try to get into ours.

As we thank God for these blessings, we recognize that more than prayers of thanksgiving are in order. Our leaders need our requests, prayers, and intercession as they face the many problems which can rob us of the ability to live peaceful, quiet lives.

We pray these prayers not to bring heaven on earth, but because we want all those with whom we share the earth to enter heaven. “This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”

Of all the things for which we can give thanks, it is still the gospel for which we are most thankful. Paul sums it up here when he refers to “God our Savior.” God is the one who has saved us from sin. He has done everything to save us. He gives us a peace we can carry with us at all times because we know that our sins are forgiven.

The spread of this gospel is possible largely due to the governing authorities for which God’s thankful people pray. The peace and order they maintain create the environment in which we can share our faith with others. Whether we have special gifts for teaching and explaining that gospel, or whether we are simple Christians living godly lives of love and prayer, we are all participants in this great mission that so pleases God and serves our neighbor.

Paul places those who govern first as he urges us to prayer and thanksgiving. Give them a place in your own prayers at Thanksgiving and always.

Philippians 4:12-13 “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.”

Jack Whitaker won 315 million dollars in the West Virginia lottery in 2002. Less than a year later he was robbed of over a half million of that money at gunpoint. The money enabled his daughter and granddaughter to become addicted to drugs, and both of them died of overdoses. Though he was the president of a construction company when he won the money, four years later he was broke. Both he had his wife wish that he had torn the ticket up and never collected the money.

Sports Illustrated estimates that nearly 80 percent of NFL players are broke within three years of retiring from football. Few of them know how to manage their riches, or have a plan for supporting themselves after they stop playing.

The Apostle Paul never knew riches like the people just mentioned. He knew what it was to have “plenty.” Plenty is enough to cover your needs, and maybe enough more to enjoy life a little. Maybe that is all we ever wanted. We aren’t asking God for a life of luxury. We just want to be able to pay the bills.

Do you notice that Paul does not say the secret to being content lies in super riches, or having plenty, or even just enough? “I know what it is to be in need.” He had experienced hunger, cold, lack of decent shelter. He had been shipwrecked and spent a night and a day in the open sea. He had been falsely imprisoned with no one to come to his defense. He was writing this very letter from just that position. Still, he was content. He had learned the secret. He wants us to know it, too.

Our day of Thanksgiving marks the beginning of the holiday season. These weeks leading up to Christmas can aggravate our materialism. There are so many shiny things to captivate our eyes. The commercials pushing us to purchase depend on our discontent to have their way with you and me.

Sometimes this season makes us more charitable. We may volunteer to feed people at a homeless shelter. We may buy Christmas presents for poor families that can’t afford them. These are all fine things to do. But don’t be surprised if those who receive your gifts aren’t filled with immediate happiness, and even leaves you a little empty. The secret to being content does not lie in how much you or anyone has.

What, then, is the secret? Paul continues, “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.”

We are content when we depend upon God for everything in every way. He has rehearsed us in this kind of trust in the way he worked out our salvation, hasn’t he? We were naturally inclined to think that salvation was not about having more. It was about doing more. We had sins to make up for, so we tried to pay off the sin-debt with better living. If we worked hard enough, we supposed, maybe we could even bank our good deeds for a bad day, and we could begin to feel good about ourselves and our future.

But that approach always leaves one with an uneasy feeling, doesn’t it? I am trying hard to live right and do good, but why don’t I feel content?

It is because that way doesn’t work. Doing more, doing better, is not the secret to salvation. His strength, not ours, secures our souls. He has always intended to give salvation as his gift. So he gave us his Son. He loved and lived the way we were supposed to do. He served the sentence we deserved for our sins. He died the death that erases them. He even gave us the faith that makes these gifts our own! His strength saves us, not our own. My soul finds peace in his love.

If this God has done so much to settle my accounts with him, can’t I trust him to take care of everything else I need? In his letter to the Romans Paul put it this way: “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave himself up for his all, how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?”  

The secret to being content is not in the possessions. It is faith in the one who has already given us a kingdom. It is the strength we find in having him as our very own, and with him everything else we truly need as well.