Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.”
Often this verse has been watered down to mean little more than “Jesus will help me be all I can be.” Paul is emphatically not teaching that Jesus is the genie in our corner, ready and willing to give us the extra boost we need to attain our dreams. If we read the surrounding verses, it becomes clear that Paul means something much deeper and more vital than this.
Philippians 4:11-13 shows that Paul’s total dependence on and satisfaction in all that God is for Him in Christ enables him to be content in every situation…..which, as he writes, entails being chained up in a Roman prison. The “all things” that Paul is strengthened to do are not the plans, goals, and dreams that he’s set for himself, rather, they are the “all things” that Christ in His loving wisdom ordains for Paul to experience. Both plenty and want, both exaltation and humiliation, hunger and abundance–and we could add–freedom and prison, sickness and health, life and death. In “all [these] things” the Lord is faithful to sustain Paul so that “Christ will be honored in [his] body, whether by life or by death” (Phil.1:20).
So….there is great comfort here for those who are trusting Christ….comfort flowing from the confidence that our Father–in His abundant sufficiency for us in the Son–will hold us up and give us all that we need to endure all that He ordains in such a way that we arrive at lasting gladness and He is shown to be precious beyond all else in this world…May He teach us this “secret” of contentment, and strengthen us to do all the He authors for us.
