To Encourage You

Philippians 4:19 “And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”

Romans 11:33 “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!”

Ephesians 2:7 “That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.”

One of the great promises of God to the believer is that they will always have everything they need in this life and they will have it in abundance.  To the believers at Philippi, Paul promised this in the context of their sacrificial giving to his physical needs.  However, the riches God has promised us are not first and foremost the promise of physical things.  Yes, Jesus has promised to meet our needs for food and clothing, for as He has told us, we can look at the way He has clothed the lilies and fed the birds, and He will likewise clothe and feed us, for we are of much more value to Him than these (Matthew 6:25-31).  However, it is in this same teaching that Jesus warns us not to focus on such things but to “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33). In other words, physical things are not to be our main focus in life as believers.  In contrast, such things are the main focus of those who don’t know Christ. 

So, what about the “riches in glory in Christ Jesus” that we are promised in Philippians 4 above?  Well, these riches, the true riches of God, are spiritual, and He overflows with these riches towards His children in their spiritual needs.  As one example, do you have a need for patience with people?  You can’t buy patience. It’s not a physical thing.  But our God overflows with longsuffering patience towards us, and as we understand and acknowledge this fact, we are given strength to be patient with others.  Are you struggling with the ability to forgive someone?  Is the bitterness eating you alive and negatively impacting your life?  God, in His grace, has forgiven us an enormous debt – one we could never repay – and it is in the realization and appreciation of this fact that we find strength to forgive each other.  The same holds for love, comfort, grace, peace, wisdom, endurance – all the most wonderful and most valuable things in life.  As we come to more fully understand God’s wondrous gifts of each of these things to us, He supplies us with all the riches of these things that we need to deal with each and every circumstance and each and every person in our life. 

Such are the riches of grace that are poured out on the lives of the believer who is constantly in need of them, and such are the riches the believer, in turn, can then pour out on others.  And to think that we have these treasures in our weak bodies, i.e., “jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us” (2 Corinthians 4:7).