Epistle to the Philipians.

Rejoice  in the Lord always. I shall say it again: rejoice! Your kindness should be known to all. The Lord is near. Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Word of God (Phil 4:4-7)

In the first verse, the Word of God begins giving us a concrete order, Always be happy in the Lord.

Before this divine mandate, we can ask many questions, among them, How can we always be happy, knowing each moment of affliction, anguish and tribulation that touches us living in this moment filled with misery and injustice?

In order to respond to these questions, it is necessary that we begin differentiate the joy that we live moment by moment that depends on external, occasional factors and the joy that the Word of God speaks to us, the joy in the Lord, that this same word of God is indicating to us that which is reached in the Lord.

It is the joy in the Lord, the joy in our God, that is the same Love, Peace and Joy, the true and only joy that we can be joyful always and that is the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

It is to say, only in the Lord, with His grace, can we always be happy and not by ourselves.

Now, to be always happy in the Lord, in the first place, requires on our part that we make a FREE DECISION, to pardon others in the Lord, and to live according to the Faith. God, who created us free, always requires our decision. A decision that demands perseverance, and that should be renewed day by day.

And how we should decide ourselves to always be happy in the Lord? In this regard, the first part of Verse 6, exhorts us that in every occasion we present to the Lord our petitions. From this mode the Lord is asking us humility and confidence. It is to say, the decision to be humble, in light of our misery our misery, recognizing that Jesus is the Lord and that we need Him, we are limited and we cannot do it alone. So also the decision of trusting in Jesus, in his merciful, omnipotent love giving him all our petitions, needs, difficulties, tribulations, and misery. We give him these not because He does not know, but rather because the Lord is very respectful and wants that freely we open ourselves to Him. We give to Him participation of our life to be able to act in his time and his mode that is better.

Our Decision of walking with the Lord, with humility and confidence, allows us to be always happy in the Lord with his grace.

In exchange, when we without excepting our limits, remain with all our difficulties,  we are anxious, filled with anxiety and we permit that the Evil one have the advantage of the difficulty that we living and let him do his work which exists in robbing our faith hope and all divine gifts.

The same verse 6, filled with riches, when we ask that we present to God our petitions, in the midst of prayer and supplicaiton, accompanying the thanksgiving, and is indicating to us in a concrete manner the mode of putting into practice the humility and trust in the Lord.

Finally, in verse 7, later of having taught us his commands, the Lord gives us a promise, the promise of his Peace. And that better still can receive our being that the Peace of the Lord, that is his presence himself in us.

Peace of God that the word speaks, will keep our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus.

Miguelangel Bravard

New Song Family

Paraguay

Translated from Spanish

Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible with Revised New Testament and Revised Psalms © 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible with Revised New Testament © 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner. [This passage is required by the United States Catholic Bishops]