Do you Know the Secret for 2021?
By: Dan Seale
Do you know the secret? Which one you ask? I am talking about the secret of being content and at peace in 2021 whatever our circumstances. As much as we want to turn the page on 2020, many of the challenges confronting us did not miraculously disappear at the chime of midnight on January 1, 2021. How do we live not only with contentment but with joy no matter what transpires in 2021? We need to learn a secret, a secret the apostle Paul learned and referenced in chapter 4 of Philippians:
For I have learned in whatever situation I am in 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, and abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
To be honest, I find this secret elusive. Sometimes I have been able to take hold of it. Other times it seems to slip through my fingers like a wet bar of soap. Other times, contentment and joy have found me, often in the biggest and most challenging moments. I am certain those times were God’s response to people praying for me.
How do we learn and hold onto the secret of contentment and joy no matter where we find ourselves? I believe Paul teaches us this secret in his letter to the church at Philippi. No, I am not going to give away the secret just yet. I want us to discover and learn the secret together as we study Philippians over the next couple of months. I encourage you to read or listen to the entire book as often as possible. I have been listening to it most mornings when I walk. Listen/read for repeated themes and for the secret Paul has learned. I believe the keys to the secret are in the first three chapters. Paul addresses many other important themes and issues that will be good for us as a body, including the theme of partnership to advance the Gospel. We are in this together as the family of God, the people of God, to advance the kingdom of God for the glory of God. Yes, these can be Christian clichés if we are not careful, but they are first and foremost biblical themes.
I look forward to learning and living with you the secret of joy and contentment in 2021 and beyond. I believe a community of people living this way in our current day will be a powerful pointer to the beauty and greatness of Jesus, the son of God who humbled himself to the point of death on the cross, to rescue us his beloved people.
“If ever the world needed the witness and testimony of Christian people, it is at this present time. The world is unhappy, it is distracted, frightened, and what it needs is to see stars shining out of the heavens in the midst of darkness, attracting the world by rebuking that darkness, and by giving it light, showing how it too can live that quality of life.
— Martyn Lloyd-Jones