Devotional Series Oct 5-8
This Devotional Series is based on a message delivered on Oct 4, 2026, and can be viewed at: https://www.kallamgrove.org/messages/to-live-is-christ/
Difficult circumstances do not mean God is doing nothing
Philippians 1:12-14
12 I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, 13 so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. 14 And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.
Paul could have looked at his circumstances and concluded that his ministry had been interrupted. Instead, he looked at the same circumstances and saw that the gospel was advancing. That doesn’t mean Paul pretended his chains were good. They weren’t. Prison was still prison. Uncertainty was still uncertainty. But Paul had learned that a difficult circumstance does not necessarily mean God is doing nothing.
In fact, God was using the very thing that appeared to be stopping Paul to open doors Paul could never have opened for himself. His imprisonment became known throughout the imperial guard, and other believers became more courageous because of what they saw in him.
We often ask God to remove the obstacle in front of us. Sometimes He does. But sometimes God has a different purpose. Sometimes the thing we want Him to take away becomes the place where He wants to do something we could not have imagined.
That doesn’t mean we have to enjoy difficult circumstances. It means we don’t have to waste them. Your circumstances may not be what you would have chosen today. But God is not limited by them.
Reflection Question: Is there a difficult circumstance in my life that I have assumed is only an obstacle, rather than asking how God might use it?
Prayer: Lord, help me trust that you are still at work even when my circumstances seem to be working against me. Amen.
The work of Christ does not have to come through us in exactly the way we would prefer
Philippians 1:15-18
15 Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. 16 The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. 17 The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. 18 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.
Paul had another problem besides being in prison. Some people were preaching Christ, but they were doing it from envy, rivalry, and selfish ambition. They weren’t trying to encourage Paul. They were trying to make his imprisonment harder. Paul had every reason to be angry. Instead, he says, “What does it matter? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.”
Paul had learned something that is incredibly difficult for us: the work of Christ does not have to come through us in exactly the way we would prefer. Sometimes we want to be the one who gets credit. We want our way of doing things to win. We want people to appreciate our contribution. And when someone else succeeds, we can quietly resent it, especially if we don’t think they deserve the credit.
Paul’s question is wonderfully simple: Is Christ being honored? That question can free us from an enormous amount of unnecessary competition. Someone else may receive the recognition. Someone else’s ministry may grow faster. Someone else may have an idea that works better than ours. Someone else may get thanked for something we helped make possible.
But if Christ is being honored, we can rejoice anyway.
Reflection Question: Is there someone else’s success that I have difficulty celebrating because I wish I were receiving the credit?
Prayer: Jesus, free me from the need to be noticed or appreciated, and give me joy whenever your name is honored, even when I am not the one receiving the credit. Amen.
Paul’s desire was that in all things, Christ would be honored
Philippians 1:19-20
19 for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, 20 as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death.
Paul says that he is eagerly expecting and hoping that, whatever happens, Christ will be exalted in his body. Paul doesn’t know how this is going to turn out. He doesn’t know whether he will live or die. He doesn’t know if he is going to be set free or if the trial is going to go his way.
Instead, Paul places his confidence somewhere deeper: whatever happens, Christ will be enough. That is a very different kind of faith. Sometimes we confuse faith with confidence that God will give us the particular answer we are asking for. But biblical faith is deeper than that. It is confidence that God will remain faithful even when we don’t know what He is going to do.
Paul doesn’t know what tomorrow holds. But he knows what he wants tomorrow to accomplish: that Christ would be honored. There are things in our own lives that we simply cannot control.
We may not know what will happen with a job, a relationship, a diagnosis, a financial decision, or a family situation.
We don’t have to know the outcome to know where our hope belongs.
Reflection Question: What outcome am I desperately trying to control that I need to place back in God’s hands?
Prayer: Father, I don’t know what tomorrow holds, but help me trust you enough to say, whatever happens, I want Christ to be honored in me. Amen.
Paul admits something surprisingly honest: he would rather depart and be with Christ
Philippians 1:22-26
22 If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. 23 I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. 24 But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. 25 Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, 26 so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again.
Paul admits something surprisingly honest: he would rather depart and be with Christ, but remaining alive would mean fruitful labor for the people he loves. And then comes the difficult choice: “to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.”
Paul was willing to give up what he personally preferred because someone else needed him. That is one of the simplest and hardest expressions of Christian love. We all have preferences. We prefer the easier conversation. The more comfortable schedule. The less demanding
commitment. The option that gives us more time, more money, more freedom, or more comfort. But the question is, “What is more necessary for someone else?” That doesn’t mean every need around us becomes our responsibility. Paul wasn’t saying that every request from every person must come before our own needs. But it does mean that following Christ gradually teaches us to take other people’s good seriously enough that we are willing to surrender something we would rather keep. Paul had found Christ to be worth more than his own life. And strangely, that didn’t make him care less about life. It made him willing to spend his life for other people.
Reflection Question: Where am I currently choosing what is easiest for me when Christ may be asking me to consider what is more necessary for someone else?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, make me so secure in you that I can willingly give up my preferences when doing so would genuinely serve someone else. Amen.