Have you ever considered the purpose of theology?  Most of us think of it as something that our pastors need to learn so they can put together sermons for Sunday morning, but there is much more to it.  Do you know that if you follow Jesus, you need to know your theology?  You probably have not thought of it in these terms, but if anyone has ever asked you what you believe, they are asking for your theology.  If you have ever shared the gospel with someone, you have shared your theology.  But what does it mean to live out our theology?  I am not suggesting that you need to learn Greek, Hebrew or a bunch of four syllable words, but we should all know the foundational doctrines of the Christian faith, be able to explain it when someone asks about our faith, and be able to reference bible verses to support what we believe.  But knowing theology is also about knowing God more fully, knowing His Character, knowing His will, knowing His promises for the future, knowing His faithfulness of the past, and knowing who you are to Him.  We also need to know His word because that is the primary source to know our God and our Savior.

Knowing our theology will also help us recognize the Hand of Providence to see when God is moving in our lives, especially in times when we feel like we are drowning or we feel abandoned or we have done something that we feel we cannot come back from.  These are the exact reasons that we need to understand our God and seek His counsel during the storms of life.  All too often we leave our theology at church and everything we sing about, read about and hear about in regards to the nature of God, the attributes of God, the providence of God and the loving kindness of God seems to be forgotten when we get out in the world and life happens to us.  I have seen this often that we profess our faith, but then when circumstances form, we seek counsel in the world rather than finding our resolve in Christ through His word and His Spirit.

We need to understand that if God is truly in control, then we should not be trying to analyze and remove every uncomfortable circumstance in our lives, but rather to pause and seek what God is doing at this very moment.  Is this an exercise in growing my faith to trust in Him even more?  Is this discipline for the most subtle of sins in my being?  Is God using me in the edification of another believer?  Perhaps I am being prepared for something I am not yet prepared to hear or understand.  Perhaps like Habakkuk, God would say to us “if I told you, you would not believe Me.”  Whatever the circumstance, our job is not to try fix it, our job is to trust the God who is sovereign over our problems and ask Him for give us His lasting peace so that we can withstand the storm.  We need to actually believe that God is in control to the point that we can give thanks for the storm and ask that God sustain us and let us increase in wisdom and faith from the trials of life.  Like Jonah in the belly of a whale, oceans and oceans deep, he had an attitude of thanksgiving.

Philippians 4 is one of the chapters that I feel every Christian should have memorized because it is so central to our Reformed Christian theology.  In short, we are to stand firm in our position in Christ (v.1), rejoice in the Lord always (v.4), not in circumstances, move with a forbearing spirit (v.5) that is to live in an unselfish, gentle way in which you completely give up your rights to everything, understand that you are to be anxious for nothing (v.6a) because the Lord is near (v.5b), and pray with thankfulness for every circumstance whether good or bad (v.6) and the result will be the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (7).  Verse 7 is hugely important.  We are not to run around anxiously looking for answers to understand how to make every problem go away.  The peace of God is beyond human reason and no form of human analysis can provide the sustaining peace of Christ.  When we understand who we are and who He is, then we can move forward as directed by His word and He will give us His peace which will guard our hearts and minds.  Guarding our hearts is important because in it is the well spring of life (Proverbs 4:23) and guarding our minds is also important because we must destroy speculation and everything that would distort or distract from the knowledge of God (2Corinthians 10:5).

(Further reading: Philippians 4, Psalm 1, Psalm 139, Isaiah 42:1-13)