I know how to live humbly, and I know how to abound. In any and every situation I have learned the secret of being filled and being hungry, of having plenty and having need.I know how to be humbled, and I also know how to abound. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret both to be filled and to be hungry, both to abound and to be in need.I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.I know how to be abased, and I know also how to abound: in everything and in all things have I learned the secret both to be filled and to be hungry, both to abound and to be in want.
5 sermons cite this verse
… drive the car long enough for the shine to wear off to understand the brilliance of God's covenant so learn the secret what what am I saying like the Bible tells us of contentment in Philippians chapter 4 verse 12 the apostle Paul says I have learned and that's part of dating isn't it I've learned the secret of being content in any and every situation. There is another nursery rhyme, believe it or not. Number three, Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. I didn't know this is right there behind me. This is great. You know what? Let's read this together. One, two, three. Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty together again. It ain't easy being oval, is it? But guys, you can be oval, and if you have a lot of money and are driving a Lambo, oh, you're sexy. I can get married and I can fix him. I can get married and I can fix her. …
… Verse 12. I know how to be abased and I know how to abound. In other words, how to be low and how to be high. Everywhere and in all things I've learned to be full and to be hungry, to abound and to suffer need. Another translation puts that verse this way. Actually, I don't have a sense of needing anything personally. I've learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I'm just as happy with little as with much or with much as with little. I found the recipe for being happy, whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Hey, I've learned what Paul says. He wasn't angry when he couldn't make ends meet. At the same time, he was not uneasy when God was blessing him with more than he needed. He had found the balance. It reminds us of what is said in Proverbs. In Proverbs 30, verse 8, the writer says, Give me neither poverty nor riches. Give me just enough to satisfy my needs, Lord. …
This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. When was the last time you felt happy? That was the name of an article I read this week written by a woman recovering from depression. She said this was the question that her therapist posed to her toward the end of her counseling sessions after she assumed that she had fully recovered from depression. I was thrown by the question, she said. I sat on her couch and mentally began to trawl through 30 years of memories to try to find the point where I last felt that serene, stable, elusive positivity that we call happiness. oh no, oh no, I thought, don't make me say it. But finally I had to, I can't remember the last time I felt happy. And suddenly she said, my claim that I was on the road to recovery sounded utterly foolish. I cried and she passed me a little box of tissues and then she wrote something down. …
Fifthly. We ought also to follow the example of the apostle in his abounding in prayer and praise. He was very earnest, and greatly engaged in those duties, and continued in them, as appears from many passages Rom. i. 8. “First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers.” Eph. i. 15, 16. “Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers.” Col. i. 3. “We give thanks to God, and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you.” 1 Thess. i. 2, 3. “We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers; remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father.” And chapter iii. 9, 10. “For what thanks can we render to God again for you, for all the joy wherewith we joy for your sakes before our God; night and day praying exceedingly, that we might see your face, and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith?” 2 Tim. i. 3. “I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers, night and day.” …
"Mortal, cease from care and sorrow, God provides for the morrow." Then they set to work to find their daily bread and find it they do, for God feeds the fowls of Heaven—and your day's provision is waiting for you! There is the manna for you outside the camp and you know where to gather it. As you do so, remember the mercy of the Lord and bless His holy name! But you say that you have not all you could wish to have and, therefore, you are not happy. Ah, dear Friends, let us all obey the Apostle's injunction, "Having food and raiment, let us be therewith content." And let us all learn the lesson of which the Apostle wrote, "I have learned in whatever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound: everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need." Let me again remind you—because I am afraid some of you, especially those of you who have abundance, do not always remember it—that you are daily dependent upon God's Providence, that you as much receive your daily bread from God as if the ravens brought it, that you as certainly obtain all that you receive from the hand of God as if it dropped from the clouds, or as if the wind brought you quails! Be thankful, then, that as each day brings to your household fresh needs for daily bread, clothing and shelter, God is also pleased to give such mercies as you need every morning. …