Set Your Sails For Joy

The more I read about Paul and what he went through, the more I find that he was an extraordinary person living an extraordinary life. There was a quote from today's lesson, "It's been said that if you were tot race Paul's journeys in the first century, it would be like tracking the path of a wounded deer running from a hunter, leaving one bloody trail after another… Physically, Paul must have been a wreck. Everywhere he traveled he carried on his body a shocking diary of scars that visibly testified to the murderous hatred and hardships he had endured."

It just blows me away that even with the life that Paul led, he still has the ability to give us a lesson in a life of Joy. He was able to do this only "Because he was confident that God was at work, God was in control, and that God allowed all things to occur for one purpose – His Greater Glory!"

Ella Wheeler Wilcox poem, The Winds of Fate states it so well:

Stanza One
One ship drive east and another drives west
With the selfsame winds that blow.
'Tis the set of the sales
And not the gales
Which tells us the way to go.

Paul definitely had his sails set for Joy! His holding onto God guided him like a compass to keep in on joy's course regardless of the gales that blew.

Paul also was not confused by his position. To the church at Phillipi, Paul was somewhat of a hero. They looked up to him. However, Paul did not take on that role. Instead, Paul looked upon himself as a "bond-servant of Christ Jesus."(Philippians 1:1a) Paul was confident in his role as a bond servant, which also gave him joy.

In Philippians 1:6, Paul spoke of his firm confidence in the Philippians' spiritual growth. "For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus." There are three reasons in this verse why Paul was confident enough to be joyful.

1. The Apostle was absolutely convinced that God was at work in the Church at Philippi,
2. He was in full control of that church, and
3. That everything about that church followed a plan for His glory.

"From the second stanza of her poem 'The Winds of Fate,' Ella Wheeler Wilcox hails one last reminder about setting our sales for joy.
Like the winds of the sea are the ways of fate,
As we voyage along through life:
'Tis the set of a soul
That decides its goal,
And not the calm or the strife.

As you prepare for your trek into the "calm and strife" of your day, you would do well to set your soul's course according to these three guidelines:

1. Confidence brings joy when you focus on the things for which you're thankful
2. Confidence brings joy when you let God be God
3. Confidence brings joy when you keep love within its proper limits

Let's take a lesson and learn how to give thanks. You can read the following scripture to help in that area:

1 Thessalonians 5:18; Ephesians 5:4, 18-20; Philippians 4:6; Exodus 15:1-21; Psalm 136; Psalm 103; and psalm 106.