Day 4 - Week 60 - Philippians 4:5 "Let your graciousness be known to everyone. The Lord is near."

"I found that God was to me a Resource and a Helper to whom I could always turn; that He was, in fact, a very present help in trouble.  That fact made all the difference to me."  Lt. General Sir William Dobbie

From 100 Bible Verses Everyone Should Know by Heart, by Robert J. Morgan

Sir William Dobbie was a British war hero and devoted Christian who, during World War II, was given command of the Malta.  Dobbie told the ill-prepared islanders that God was a very present help in trouble.  And against all odds Malta did not fall.  Allied battleships in its harbor were sitting ducks for the enemy, but the ships were never hit.  A bomb fell through the roof of the village church, but it didn't go off.  Nearly three hundred enemy plans were destroyed and six hundred others damaged.  Allied forces in Malta threatened enemy supply lines and prevented Axis planes from reaching Europe.  Dobbie's men said he possessed an inner calm impossible to understand.  After the war he wrote a book about the "Miracle of Malta."  He entitled his account A Very Present Help.

I don't know about you, but I would love someone to recall me with a story of faith like that.  A woman of such faith that she exhibited calm in the middle of a very real storm.  "An inner calm impossible to understand."  And from what I read of Lt. General Sir William Dobbie, I just know that he was a man of graciousness.   I am prompted by this account of his faithfulness to think of the many other people throughout history who have exhibited similar levels of commitment to our Lord and whose stories we may not have heard. It would be an interesting study to undertake, wouldn't it?

The other thing that comes to my mind tonight is another way in which the two sentences of our verse tie together.  If we would always remember that our Lord is very near...that He is in actuality right by our side, knowing our circumstance, knowing everything that is circling around us, and watching how we, as His ambassador here on earth, respond to all of these swirling variables.   Don't you think that if we would more consciously be aware of His presence beside us that we would more often react with a graciousness that we often miss.  Remembering that Christ is walking right with us surely would be an encouragement to treat other people with a consideration that befits someone who has taken on the name of the epitome of graciousness and consideration.

Maybe, in my mind, I need to remember this verse in reverse..."The Lord is near...let your graciousness be known to everyone."

Blessings my sweet cojourners!