To Live Is Christ to Die Is Gain

by Matt Chandler

You can’t battle it with nothing,

We must think of Christ. That is the ultimate secret of a positive thought life. All unworthy thoughts perish in His

It’s natural to dwell on what’s false, to dwell on the lie.

I’ve said for years that if you come into a fight with pants and you’re no longer wearing pants when the fight’s over, you lost the fight.

“To live is Christ, and to die is gain,” he means it. If you want to kill me, I will be more than fine: I will get to be with Jesus. My death will be filled with Christ. And if you want to let me live, I will press on in mission. My life will be filled with Christ. If you want to torture me or imprison me or mock me, I will trust in God. My suffering will make me like Christ. I will see it as a sharing of His own suffering.

Through highs and lows, better and worse, richer and poorer, sickness and health, you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you, when Christ becomes your all.

Paul has adopted the revolutionary position that he has no needs.

We live in the most entertained world that humanity has ever experienced, and yet most of us are bored out of our minds and frustrated.

abundance for what it was, as a gift from God for a time, but contentment means being satisfied not with the gifts but with the Giver.

“Restless is our heart until it comes to rest in

To believe that we’ll finally be happy when we get what we want is a

true contentment is not in any way related to circumstances.

We learn contentment not by primarily learning coping skills or response strategies in times of difficulty and adopting ambivalence in times of comfort, but rather by learning just how all-surpassingly good our gracious God really is.