Whatever

"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 is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me- practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you." (Philippians 4:8-9). Such common words in our Christian vocabularly, yet they hit me today as I read Colossians. My eyes caught a passage marked above in chapter 4 of Philippians as I scanned the first page of Colossians about rejoicing in the Lord always and as I read through the remander of Philippians those 2 simple verses caught my eye. Think about these things. My mind races and I'll have to admit I'm slightly ashamed when I think of what I think about. How often I am thinking about something very different than my facade appears and my actions portray. "Man looks at the outward appearance but the Lord looks at the heart." I wish not. How often do I live up to the outward appearance but not to the heart, the inward thoughts and desires that consume me so often with evil. So how to I combat this? How do I strive with all His energy to follow God? I think about such things. I think about whatever is true, whatever is honorable, commendable, pure, excellent and worthy of praise. I choose to set my mind on things above and not on earthly things. For the things of this world are fading, but the eternal things are forever. What else do I do? Practice what I have learned and seen. The interesting thing to me was that this is Paul speaking, not Jesus. Not the perfect man that descended to earth to take away our sins, no. It's Paul, the guy who transformed from truly terrible to truly magnificient because he let Christ be all. How did he do it? By thinking about such things. By letting Christ be his role model, his person that he looked to for practice for life. Look at the promise- the God of Peace will be with you. What more could we ask for in life, what more could be want? You may not know that's what you want, that's what you need, and you may be thinking that you wish you could honestly say that's all you want. But know this, in 22 1/2 years of life I have come up short in every avenue that I have desired that wasn't God. I have come up short and it has failed me. It has disappointed and left me wanting. The God of Peace will be with you. You can't have peace and still be wanting. You can't have peace and be disappointed. You can't, and you won't. It's a promise.