SPEAKER_00: Hi everyone, it's Nancy with your Wednesday edition of our daily walk.
SPEAKER_00: We've been studying the first part of Philippians these past few Sundays, and as we've done so, I've seen the Apostle Paul as a man who at his core had a piece, the piece he writes about in chapter four that surpasses all understanding.
SPEAKER_00: It certainly wasn't based on his circumstances because they were often filled with difficult challenges, struggles, and pain.
SPEAKER_00: And yet he kept his focus on the truth that God loved him.
SPEAKER_00: He knew God made a way through the sacrifice of his son Jesus for Paul to have a relationship with God that would be for eternity.
SPEAKER_00: He knew that God's hand was firmly on all aspects of his life.
SPEAKER_00: He believed that God called him to share the gospel and that God would equip and guide him to do so.
SPEAKER_00: And he was confident that when he completed all he was to do, the Lord would take him to his heavenly home.
SPEAKER_00: When my husband Sullivan died, my son asked me how he should tell his little daughter.
SPEAKER_00: He had talked to her through the years about God, about his love for us and about heaven, but he hadn't talked to her about death, especially one that came without warning.
SPEAKER_00: As I sat with him, I think God brought to my mind a way to talk with her.
SPEAKER_00: Knowing children relate to tasks and checklists, I shared that God created each of us and has loved us from the very beginning of our lives.
SPEAKER_00: He tells us in his word that he has plans for each of our lives, and he wants us to first of all love him with all our hearts and accept his gift of love for us and to do the things he has planned for us to do, like a checklist of sorts.
SPEAKER_00: He also tells us in his word, he will help us to do all that he wants us to do.
SPEAKER_00: When we've done everything that he planned for us, he will take us to heaven to live with him forever.
SPEAKER_00: And her granddad surely believed that.
SPEAKER_00: So on that April afternoon, he finished everything God had planned for him to do.
SPEAKER_00: And because he loved God and accepted God's love for him, God took him to heaven to be with him forever.
SPEAKER_00: And someday we'll be with him there.
SPEAKER_00: In the meantime, God wants us to continue to do the things he asked for of us, including loving him and sharing his love with others.
SPEAKER_00: And he promises he will help us do that.
SPEAKER_00: That truth, my friends, is what gives my family the peace Paul writes about, a peace that surpasses all understanding, a peace that guides our thoughts and guards our hearts, a peace that encourages us to press on, a peace that comforts and brings hope.
SPEAKER_00: Listen as I close our time here with Paul's writing in chapter 4 of Philippians.
SPEAKER_00: Rejoice in the Lord always.
SPEAKER_00: Again, I will say, rejoice.
SPEAKER_00: Let your reasonableness be known to everyone.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord is at hand.
SPEAKER_00: Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God.
SPEAKER_00: And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.