So, I have been recently studying Philippians 1 and the Lord is teaching me SO much through His word.

Today, as I was reading, I was thinking about all the things that are going on in my life right now. Transitioning from Riverside to Orange County, entering the job world and leaving 17ish years of schooling behind, living at school to living in an apartment with a roommate with rental payments, bills, etc. I also go to thinking about how I view people. Recently, I have been struggling with my own timeline. The thoughts constantly run through my head as to why I am single in this season in life, why my timeline isn’t how I pictured it to be out of college, why I decided to leave a place where I knew so many people to Orange county where I am having to meet new people, get connected to a new church, etc. etc. etc. All that to say, contentment has been a HUGE struggle in my life in the last couple of months since graduation.

Anyways…back to Philippians…I was reading this morning and going over the question “what can I learn from the example of others?” and I came across these verses (1:7-8): “It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.” Many times because I am so focused on the next move in my life, I forget to view people as children of God and with the affection of Christ. I view them as pawns in the chess game of my life. I view people as a means to get me somewhere else, rather than how I can love and serve them like Christ does. Paul David Tripp recently posted a quote on facebook that I felt was very accurate to how I have viewed relationships in the past; he said, 

“Maybe you’re attracted to that person, not because you love them, but because you love yourself and you love what they’ll do for you.”

I have been mulling over what it means to yearn for people with the affection of Christ since I started this study. I don’t know if my answer is theologically correct or if I am adding my own interpretation into it, but I do know that to yearn for someone with the affection of Christ does not include selfish motives in how to advance my own self. Usually, it means that I will give up and sacrifice my own well-being/self in order to uplift them and bring them closer to Christ. 

What do you believe Paul is trying to say in this passage? How can you learn from Paul’s example of yearning after the Philippians with the affection of Christ?

To Be Continued… 🙂 

sidenote: I do love my job, my new apartment, singleness, my new church, etc…but, it has been a struggle not to get discouraged in the slow progress of moving into a new area and meeting new people…