Let your moderation be known

Philippians 4:5 Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.

The challenge of the Christian life is to learn how to walk out high mountain peaks and deep valley lows as though it were constant level plain. The Christian life is to be lived with a balanced perspective. That is to not get too high with the highs and not to low with the lows. The temptation is to be carried away by mountain top pride which says, “I deserve to be up so high,” or valley low pride which says, “I don’t deserve to be down so low.”

Although one’s current experience is peaking, he should expect that the valley is his next destination. And although one may be going through a valley, he should bear in mind he will not be there always. The Apostle calls it “moderation” in this verse; just a few verses down he calls it contentment; elsewhere the scripture calls it temperance. Simply put, no situation must cause the Christian to be out of sync.

And here is the moderating factor, “The Lord is at hand.” It is not that God is ever absent from the Christian’s experience, but that the Christian fails to realize that the Lord is near. And I’ve been there, where the problems of the day made me forget that the problem-solver was with me, where my broken heart made me numb to the finger of the heart-fixer tapping me on the shoulder; where my confused and troubled mind caused me to ignore the voice of the mind-regulator speaking in my ear. In my mind the circumstance had more power than the Lord who was there with me, who promised to never leave me, nor forsake me. Although He was really present, His presence was not a reality to me.

And Paul said that the goal is not merely internal moderation, but the manifestation of the moderation, so that it is experienced by all men, although it will exceed their understanding. And it should, because the Lord, the moderator, the one in control, is a present reality. And He will moderate you: keep you calm when your husband walks out; take you through the doctor’s terminal diagnosis; leave you at peace when your baby boy is facing a prison sentence; cause you to acknowledge and trust Him when your job plays out. You can see what others can’t, the nearness of the Lord’s proximity to your situation. You can hear what others can’t; His soothing voice whispering in your ear. You feel what others can’t, the intimacy of his very present help in your time of trouble. You smell what they can’t; the sweet smelling fragrance of your sacrificial obedience that is well pleasing to God. You can taste what they can’t, that the Lord is sho’nuff good.