Welcome to Daily Steps! 

Please visit the Sermon Series Resource page for additional instruction and/or guidance on how to navigate Daily Steps. 

Philippians 4:11-13 (ESV)  — Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Contentment in the Midst of Captivity

Most of the world is in captivity right now. With the residents of China barely beginning to emerge from months of quarantine and the governor of Hawaii declaring that anyone visiting the state must isolate for 14 days before leaving their hotel rooms, it’s as though the earth itself has turned off its porch light, locked the front door, and gone into self-imposed hibernation. Seismologists around the world have noticed a marked decline in the noise and vibrations normally generated by the hustle and bustle of normal life on earth. It’s so quiet, in fact, they can now detect the planet’s natural rumblings and shifts with much greater ease. And if we could have a bird’s eye view from space, we would see more landforms through clearer blue skies, thanks to the reduced air pollution. Even the oceans are quieter, making life less stressful for marine creatures.  

While this may be the quietest and healthiest moment for the earth’s ecosystem since before the industrial revolution, it’s likely the most disruptive and disturbing moment in modern history for all of humankind. We may all be staying at home, but the noise of panicking souls and discontented hearts is pounding louder and louder through our newscasts, social media, and especially inside our heads. We are held captive by an insidious stealth killer, and hunkering down tempts us on a daily basis to give in to feelings of discontent — in all its various forms. 

Into this outwardly quiet, but inwardly chaotic scene, walks Jesus. The only One capable of calming both the storms of earth and the storms in our minds. Like us, the Apostle Paul was in captivity. Prison to be more precise. The religious elite wanted to kill him. A virus wants to kill us. The parallels between Paul’s situation when he wrote the book of Philippians and ours today, are astounding. So when Paul tells us that he has learned the secret to contentment in seasons of both hardship and abundance, we have an incentive — perhaps like no other point in our lifetimes — to learn his secret and grab hold of it for dear life. And in this case, Paul would tell us that the word life isn’t about our physical existence, but a life far more valuable and immeasurably more important — the life Jesus died to give us so that we can live forever with Him. In John 10:10b (TPT), Jesus said, “But I have come to give you everything in abundance, more than you expect — life in its fullness until you overflow!” 

In our Scripture passage this week, Paul is telling us how to grab ahold of the abundant life and experience contentment, peace, joy, and patience while we remain in our captivity. Upon first reading of Philippians 4:11-13, the secret Paul is talking about is hard for us to grasp. It’s a remarkably short statement for such a big secret. But that’s because the secret isn’t in the statement itself. The meaning of the word “learned” in verse 11 and the same word in verse 12 are completely different in the original Greek version of this book. In verse 11 Paul is telling us that learning is the culmination of putting into practice everything up until that point. In other words, the secret to contentment is found in doing all the things Paul teaches us throughout Philippians and his other letters to the ancient churches. And the three words “learned the secret" in verse 12 are actually just one word in Greek, and it means understanding something that is ordinarily hard to know or hidden from view. That’s because learning to be content is a treasure worth more than any comfort or pleasure this world or this earthly life can ever offer us.  

So how can we experience contentment in the middle of this pandemic? How can we avoid giving in to feelings of frustration when even the most basic necessities, like toilet paper, are in short supply? How can we receive a flood of peace, when the only thing our minds want to do is race, spin, and ruminate on worst-case scenarios and what-if thoughts? How do we discover Paul’s secret? It is our surrender, not our striving, that makes soul-contentment possible. We are called to rest in the captivity. To simply wait with a thankful heart, seeking our comfort in Jesus, not in creature comforts, health, or even physical freedom. Jesus is calling us to have a childlike trust in Him, not to be restless in nervous anticipation of the unknown or the unreceived. He urges us to rest in our heavenly Father’s best, not in what our own minds tell us we need or want to be comfortable and safe. The next five days of readings are designed to help you experience His supernatural rest. 

Invite God's Presence

Select one or two of these spiritual practices to try this week. For ideas on how to practice these and why they are beneficial, watch the brief video series about Daily Steps at the bottom of this resource page.  

• Worship by singing along with your favorite praise tunes. Here is a playlist you might like. 
• Meditate on a verse from this week’s readings
• Be still and listen for at least 5 minutes
• Spend time outdoors in solitude (i.e. a walk in nature)
• Journal about the ways you see God moving
• Create (paint, sculpt, draw, write poetry or music, etc.)
• Fast from something that allows you to spend more time with God