Daily Devotional

Well, are you staying healthy? How's your health? How's your health mentally, your mental health? Staying healthy is surely on everyone's mind these days, not only with the virus thing, but all of the other little inconveniences that have come our way, minimized some of our opportunities for these things.

Well, I got a notice regarding our mental health from the Association of Psychiatrists the other day, and they are assuring us that it is perfectly healthy mentally to talk to your pets and to talk to your plants.

But they did say if those plants or pets start talking back, then maybe you'll want to give them a call. Well, I hope you're staying healthy mentally. How about physically? How about physically? Are you getting enough physical exercise?

I'm not talking about like getting up from the couch to go to the refrigerator, to the table, back to the couch. Little more exercise than that. Although from a statistic I saw the other day, probably the majority of us don't think much about physical exercise anyway.

Apparently, 87 of those who have gym memberships don't even realize that their gym is closed. So that's kind of an interesting stat. How about your marriage? How's your marital health doing these days?

This kind of a radically different way of life has created some interesting dynamics in the home, hasn't it? I think especially those of you who are not retired, where the husband and wife are not in the home together every day, all day long.

So I saw that one wife reported yesterday that her husband saw a cockroach in the kitchen and he just freaked out. And so he just went to town. He pulled everything out of the cabinets. He cleaned out all the cabinets, cleaned out all the drawers, reorganized everything, put everything back.

So for the first time in a long time, the wife was amazed. The kitchen was in wonderful condition. So she said today she was going to put the cockroach in the bathroom to see what happens. Well, I hope your family is staying healthy and everyone is getting along wonderfully.

Just a reminder, tomorrow evening, Thursday evening at seven o 'clock, we'll be having a Maundy Thursday service and should be a good service to prepare our hearts and minds for this coming Lord's Day, Easter Sunday.

So that's tomorrow night, seven o 'clock. For those who are members of Faith Baptist Church or part of the church family, if you've been a believer in Christ and you've been baptized, you're welcome to participate in an online Lord's Supper communion service.

It's very different, surely, certainly not something we would prefer to do, but an opportunity to do so tomorrow night. If you would like to participate in that, let me know by email or text or a phone call.

I'll let you know what you need to do. In terms of answers to prayer, we've been praying for J .H., a member of the church who was thought might have the COVID -19 virus. It turns out that test came back negative, just apparently had a very, very bad flu bug or something of that nature.

So thank the Lord for that answer to prayer. The last couple of days, I've been kind of concentrating our attention on Philippians chapter four. Let me read this passage again, and I want to zero in on one little statement in the.

Passage.

Peace in the Lord’s Presence

Now, Paul writes, remember he's writing from that house arrest with the potential of an ultimate execution. And he says, Rejoice in the Lord always, again, I will say rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone.

The Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there's anything worthy of praise, think about these things, what you have heard, what you've learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be.

With you.

So in these last several days, I talked about the four peace destroying problems that we can develop. You do notice in this passage, there's kind of like a central idea of having peace. The peace of God that surpasses understanding will guard your hearts.

And then at the end of the passage, he says, the God of peace will be with you. So there are four peace destroying problems in this passage that we can develop during a time like this. And Paul shares some correctives from this passage.

So to kind of review, the problem of negative obsession, the corrective to that is to rejoice in the Lord always. The peace destroying problem of angry agitation is to let your reasonableness be known to everyone.

The problem of anxious speculation is answered with prayerful supplication and thanksgiving. And the peace destroying problem of irrational diversion is corrected by a focused thinking on things that pass through that filter of verse eight, the things that are true, honorable, and so forth.

Well, today, I want to zero in on a truth in this passage that makes all of those other correctives possible, and it makes peace possible. It's the statement at the end of verse five, where Paul writes, the Lord is at hand.

The Lord is at hand. Now, what does that mean? The Lord is at hand. Well, that could be referring to his return, that his return is near, so that at hand means close or nearby in time, that the Lord's return is near in time.

That's the way the word is used in some other passages. For example, in Romans 13, verse 11, it says, our salvation is nearer than when we believed. It's closer in time than when we believed. In John 11, verse 55, the verse says that the Jewish Passover was near at hand.

And in Matthew 26, 18, when the Lord is looking forward to the triumphal entry or actually the last supper that evening, he says in Matthew 26, 18, my time is near. It is close at hand. And it is true that the day of the Lord is at hand.

It is near. It has been for 2 ,000 years. That statement was originally written a couple thousand years ago, that the day of the Lord is at hand. And that truth, that the day of the Lord is at hand, it does give us great hope and assurance and confidence for ultimate outcomes.

But I think that in this passage, Paul is focusing on something else. I don't think he's talking about the return of the Lord being close in time. Instead, I believe the Lord is at hand in Philippians chapter 4, is referring to his presence, that Jesus is close by.

That's what Paul meant when he wrote to the Gentiles in the book of Ephesians. He says, but now in Christ Jesus, you who previously were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. You've been brought close together by the blood of Christ.

And this is how the word is used on Good Friday. In John 19, verse 20, it says that the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city. And in verse 42, after Jesus had died and they took his body down off of the cross, they laid him in a tomb.

And verse 42, John 19 says that that tomb, that sepulcher was near at hand. So I think what Paul says, the Lord is at hand, he's not referring to his second coming as close in time. But instead is referring to the Lord's presence, that the Lord's presence is close, is nearby.

Remember Jesus' promises? He said in Matthew 28, verse 20, lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. And he said in the book of Hebrews, I will never leave you nor forsake you. So here's a wonderful and I hope encouraging truth for you today, that if you are in Christ Jesus, if you're a follower of Jesus, he is nearby.

He is right with you as you shelter in place, as you wait for this crisis to pass, as you wade through the overwhelming sea of information and you try to navigate the conflicting reports and all of the rest of the stuff that's going on in this COVID crisis.

The Lord is at hand, he is nearby. So why can you rejoice always? Because no matter what, the Lord is at hand. How can you be calm and reasonable in this COVID storm? Because the Lord is at hand. How can you avoid the anxiety that's caused by the speculation that's going on all around you and hopefully not, but possibly even in your own mind?

How can you avoid that anxiety? Well, the Lord is right with you. He is at hand. And why focus on the truth that filters through that grid of verse 8? Because the Lord is at hand. He is close by. He is present with you.

Well, as we close today, I hope that this verse from the book of Proverbs chapter 12 proves true for you. Proverbs 12 verse 25, anxiety in a man's heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad.

I hope this good word that the Lord is at hand makes your heart glad today. So Father in heaven, we thank you that those of us who are in Christ Jesus, who know him as our personal savior, can also know with confidence that he is near at hand.

He is right with us throughout all of this ordeal of this current day. Thank you for that wonderful promise, that glorious truth, that soul-calming, peace-giving truth of our Lord's presence. We thank you in Jesus' name.

Amen.

All right.

Well, may the Lord bless you as he is at hand as you go through the rest of this day and the remainder of your work.