Php 4:11  Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. 

This verse is one of the high water marks of our walk with the Lord. Paul says that he had “learned,” to be content no matter what situation he found himself in. This learning did not come from his studies at the feet of human teachers. This learning came from having experienced everything that life had to throw at him, or better stated, everything that he had to suffer for the cause of Christ. Whether it was being hungry or without proper clothing, having a lot of money or having no money at all, Paul had learned. Whether he was popular or whether he was rejected, he had learned. When he was shipwrecked and adrift in the sea, he had learned. Whether he had the skin torn from his back or stoned to within an inch of his life, he had learned. Whether he was a free man in this world or whether he found himself at the bottom of a dungeon, he had learned.

What had he learned? What had a multitude of afflictions taught him? He has learned, however slowly or speedily, God knows, that His Lord and Savior was always with him and would take him through. When you can look back at your own life and see what the Lord has brought you through, how He walked with you through a multitude of trials and afflictions, you should “know.” Can you imagine how different the Israelites experience in the desert would have been if they had “learned,” to trust in God by looking back and seeing what He had brought them through and the power of that learning would have carried them forward in power and love and a sound mind.

One has to desire to learn. It is a deliberate act of the will to trust in the Lord your God and here is the best part, He will help you to trust Him and to be content. Simply look back. Look back and see where He has brought you from. See what He has delivered you from. See how He has provided for you. Looking back is very rarely healthy, consider Lot’s wife who by looking back was holding on to something that the Lord was delivering her from. Looking back for the Israelites was for the most part not healthy for they were looking back at Egypt and rather than trust in a God who delivers, they longed to have the security of their bondage. At least as slaves they knew what tomorrow would bring. The looking back that is healthy is when we deliberately bring to mind the God of our salvation and His great deliverance of our souls.

The old children’s chorus “count your blessings,” says “count your blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done.” Indeed, there is power in this kind of reflection, this kind of looking back. This contentment that Paul had learned (aren’t you glad he uses the word learned) is learned not in a classroom nor by anointed preachers, this contentment comes by walking through the fires and passing through the waters with Jesus. If we can learn to rejoice when our teachers are the bread of afflictions and the waters of adversity then we can say with Paul that we have learned to be content in every situation. Bread and water is the diet of prisoners, it is designed to barely keep them alive. Yet our life comes not from bread alone but from every word that proceeds forth from the mouth of God. A word from God is life to us. Water is the most basic need of man, but we drink from the eternal wells of living water that flow from heaven above.

Therefore, even in chains and in the most dire of situations, we have bread from heaven and the living waters of life to revive our soul which causes us to rejoice in the Lord our God just like Paul and Silas in the dungeon. Paul could be content in every situation because he had learned, by actual experience, that God was with him in every situation. Dear saint, He is with you, and in this we rest.

Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me.(Jer 9:23-24)

In the day of your calamity where is your strength? When the doctor tells you your child shall surely die, where is your wisdom? Can your strength save the child? Can all the money in the world raise up a child from the dead? The man of God’s strength lies in the fact that he knows God and is known by God. To know God and to depend upon Him is true wisdom. To know God and to be found in Him is true strength. To know God and to stand in His presence is riches beyond measure.

In the evil day to come we shall find our wisdom in the Word of God and the power of His Spirit. In the evil day to come when all true saints are brought low and among them there is no distinction, we shall find that in Him we are stronger than we ever could have imagined. We shall discover that it is His strength flowing through us when all our own capabilities have been stripped away. In the evil day to come when the world has taken back from us all of its treasures as a measure of punishment, we shall discover a depths of riches from the treasures of heaven that enrich us with true riches.

God’s wisdom is pure and eternal and His strength knows no bounds. The treasures that He bestows upon His children will stay with them for all eternity. Knowing Him is abundant life even in the midst of death. Knowing Him is light even in the depths of darkness. Knowing Him is rivers of living waters in a dry and dusty wilderness. Knowing Him is heavenly food for a starving soul in the midst of a great famine. Knowing Him is to have access to resources that are without limit, they are are spiritual and not carnal. The Apostle Paul proclaimed that the loss of everything he ever had in this world, including its wisdom and power and riches were as nothing in comparison to the excellency of knowing Christ his Lord and to found in Him and to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings.

Can we make such a proclamation brothers and sisters? Is knowing Him our all in all? Shall we gladly suffer the loss of all things to be found in Him? This is the mark of the saint down through the ages. Let us take our place with the Body of Christ that went before us , that great cloud of witnesses, and let us proclaim with them and with Paul that to know Him and to be found in Him is the all consuming treasure of our heart.

Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! surely thou hast greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, Ye shall have peace; whereas the sword reacheth unto the soul.(Jer 4:10)

Let all men be liars and let our great and mighty God be true. The people of Jerusalem rested on the promises of God yet ignored the conditions upon which those promises were made. People in general hate conditions, is that not true? For example, did Jesus not tell us by the Scriptures to be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication and thanksgiving to let your requests be known unto God and the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hears and minds through the Lord Jesus Christ? What a glorious promise yet it comes with a condition does it not? Be anxious for nothing. Let your prayers be framed by a thankful heart in all that you do and pray, then, and only then will the promise of God come to pass in the heart of the saint. Let not any man or woman expect to know anything of this peace unless they, by a conscious act of their will in obedience to His Word and His command, lay down that anxiousness.

Should those in Jerusalem expect to be surrounded by the peace of God when they willfully and deliberately ignored the commands and the directions of a Holy God? Should Christendom expect to see the promises of God come to pass in their lives when they live in direct violation of God’s word and His warnings? Or should they not rather experience a sword that pierces through their existence and penetrates into the deepest parts of their soul? The prophet Isaiah had the wherewithal to cry out to a Holy God that he was undone, that he was a man of unclean lips who dwelt among a people of unclean lips. Yet in our day and age of once saved always saved, cheap grace for salvation and hyper grace that has replaced sanctification, we expect the peace and the promises of God in our lives. God forbid. We serve a Holy God.

The religious structures and the denominations who have thrown off the truth of God, who walk hand in glove with a Godless generation who gleefully violate Gods word, still expect to walk in and be covered by the peace of God. It shall not be so and they will be pursued by a sword that penetrates their very core. And with a rage and an anger that matches Saul as he tried to pin David to the wall, they will, with their troubled spirits and souls,lash out at those who do walk in the peace of God, who do walk according to His statutes. Who do walk in a peace that surpasses all understanding. The beauty of their holiness will reflect about their enemies wickedness. Their obedience will reflect upon their disobedience. The genuine saint of God is called to be a witness who testifies, by his walk, against the false professor, the religious man and the sons of disobedience.