On every remembrance

I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, - Philippians 1v3

Much of our Christian life and behaviour comes down to choices. We choose to obey. We choose to trust. We choose to be content. We choose to follow God’s will. We chose to love. We choose to depend on the Lord. Our choices should not depend on circumstance. When we make these choices, we do so make a choice and by God’s grace stick with it.

Here, I think, we have another choice. Surely Paul did not have a positive memory of every believer in Philippi. People were people then, just as they are now. Not everyone’s personality’s match up with ours. We all have our quirks. Some of us are loud, forceful, and forward. Some of us are quiet, reserved, and retreating. Some of us like the heat and the sun. Some of us like the cold and the wet. Some of us like Chelsea, and some (heaven forbid) like Man United.

Far too often we let these differences get in the way our true fellowship and thanksgiving. Let’s be honest – its hard to give thanks for a Man U supporter J !

Yet, Paul told the church at Philippi that we gave thanks every time he thought about them. Nothing really mattered. Personalities, quirks, preferences, and idiosyncrasies are forgotten about and replaced with thankfulness. In the context of the rest of the book Paul was even thankful for those preachers who were opposing him! That would be even harder than being thankful for that supporter of the football club mentioned above!

Choose thankfulness – sounds easy, but I guarantee we will find some out there that it is hard to be thankful for. You know what – it really doesn’t matter. Let’s choose thankfulness and see how that affects circumstances instead of vice-versa.