I can do all things through [Christ who strengthens me. Philippians 4:13 NKJV

Forty some years ago my wife and I went to see Yul Brynner, in the Broadway play, The King and I” My favorite line came when the king would dictate a long list of rules for how people in his court must behave around him, and then end with a thundering “Etcetera! Etcetera! Etcetera!” I used to chuckle at that word, “etcetera!” Now, more than forty years later, I have found that it is those etcetera’s of life, that give me the greatest trouble. For me the verse, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…” is the best part of the Bible and if there were no other words in scripture, I could lay my head on the pillow every night in peace. But when Paul writes to me from a Roman prison, saying, “I can do all things…” I tremble to think of what those “all things” – the “etcetera’s” of his life might have been. What about, when his healing didn’t come, the abuse he suffered continued, and his hopes of release seemed dim? But then I back up to the end of verse eleven, where Paul shares with us what his personal journey had been like. “I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content:” How good it is that even this great Apostle had to learn. He also had to attend the school of etcetera’s. He had been blessed and he had been beaten. He had been spoken to by angels and shipwrecked in a storm. He had held crowds of people spellbound with his teaching and he had been driven from the pulpit by mockers. And through it all, Paul had learned: “To be content in every situation.” It no longer mattered to him if someone else got to preach, received a larger offering, or lived in comfort. What mattered to Paul was that Jesus Christ had proved Himself to be faithful through everything. So, this morning, when unwelcome circumstances are beating loudly at our door, we can be at peace, if we have committed ourselves to the Christ who was crucified, buried, and who rose on the third day. Because, no matter what we face, Jesus has promised us that there is no etcetera in all of the universe that can take us out of His hand!