"Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need."

      I awakened this morning a good while before the sun was up. My intention was to write this piece before anyone else arose. This is an oft practiced routine that is much to my liking. Today, things turned out differently. I was alone long enough to put on a pot of coffee, when Brian, my two year old grandson, joined me. We had a cup together (Brian opted for milk); then he crawled up in my lap. Had things just gone wrong? Or had the Lord intervened?

      My devotion was not going to get written if I just sat there holding my grandson. You see, however, that it did get written… albeit three hours later than planned. Those who know me best know there was a time I struggled with such a situation. I might claim to be older and more mature these days, but that isn’t entirely true. The truth is, I have found it worthwhile to look for God in a wider variety of situations. Modern Christian philosophy tends to emphasize viewing our relationship to God in the light of how the world bends to our desires. If the man of faith should happen to ail; he prays and is well and we know he is a man of faith. The woman of faith has financial needs, she prays and money arrives and we know she is numbered with the true believers. The Church of faith presses its agenda and the congregation grows and we know God is in the house. Isn’t it just possible God is in the unexpected? Could it be that His plan for us may diverge slightly (or radically) from our and it still be God?

      Just how did Paul learn to be abased and abound? To be hungry and full? To abound and suffer need? Did God endue him with supernatural knowledge? Maybe. But I tend to think experience was the real teacher here. Paul experienced all these things and found God working in him through them all. With God for company, Paul was content.

      This is the true context for the next verse. “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”