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The Pursuit of Happiness Daily Devotional -35

by David Joynt on February 06, 2021


PHILIPPIANS 4:9 | 9 Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.

Wow. “Imitate me.” This simple instruction tells us much about the way Paul valued leadership and estimated its influence. Leaders are de facto models. “Do as I say and not as I do” is not modesty but hypocrisy. Our lives must match our words, or our words lose all their power.

Paul embraced his role as a leader and so he also embraced his role as a model for the disciples in his churches. What an awesome responsibility! But it is the way the world works. Older siblings are models for younger ones, parents for children, teachers for pupils.

For whom are you a model?

What do you hope to model for them?

(Look back at the list of traits in Verse 8).

 

Tags: peace, model

About the Author
David Joynt

Dave Joynt began his service as a pastor at Valley Presbyterian Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona in September 2014. This meant a move away from the Northeast, where he has a long history, growing up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and then serving congregations in Delaware and New Jersey for a total of 23 years.

Dave was nurtured in a great church in Bethlehem where his parents, Anne and Carey, served as elders. He graduated in classics from Lehigh University where his Father taught, and then from Oxford, where he met his wife Julia. Ordained in 1988, he completed a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1993.

He and Julia have a son, Tristan, and a daughter, Madeleine.

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