Life will always be lived with uncertainty. Lean in to it with faith, hope and courage. Joy , peace, and confidence. Phil 1:19-26. Paul had been serving Jesus for 30 years. Probably i his mid-60s. It was a costly journey. Beaten, imprisoned. He wrote the book during a 2-year house arrest awaiting trial. This letter is a real letter during real everyday situations. Part of the miracle of the inspiration of Scriptures is its supra-cultural capacity to be relevant in different settings even though it was written for a specific situation.
3 results: accepting the boundary of God’s providence. V 19: I know that through your prayers it will turn out for my deliverance. It was not that Paul thought that he would be relieved from the house arrest. The word deliverance also means “salvation.” Our deliverance from sin. It also could mean a physical deliverance. Paul was fully embracing either his physical deliverance or his death. He trusted God’s providence. There was no need to back God into a corner for physical deliverance. Either outcome was accepted.
Psalm 16. “The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. I have a sure inheritance.” We suffer when we go chasing beyond our boundaries. Or we create new boundaries. We suffer. We accept that God is bigger than what we can see our understand. Rather than limiting God to our preferred outcomes, we trust our boundary to God.