Thursday, March 13: Philippians 1- Paul prays.

I am attracted to Paul’s prayers, so verses 9-11 tapped right into my heart. And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ--to the glory and praise of God.

Paul prays for love abounding in knowledge. That touches me. In my world, love by itself can be perverted into many aberrations… lust/sex or a mushy ‘allow anything to go’, to name two possibilities. But love abounding in knowledge (especially when knowledge is assumed to be knowledge of God and God’s Word) gives balance and stability. Knowledge of God gives a firm footing that will not fail and will not be drawn askew.

And Paul’s actual prayer is to abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight. It is the constant growing in knowledge that Paul prays for. His prayer is that we never stop growing in knowledge.

And why does Paul pray this way? He has an end game. He desires that his friends in Philippi may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ. Paul prays that we live rightly (before God) and discerning what is best is the roadway to living rightly.

As I consider Paul’s prayer, he is constantly praying that his friends grow in God, deepen in the faith, move closer to Jesus in thought, word and living. It is not that Paul doesn’t pray for the worldly needs of others, I am sure he does. But Paul also seems to understand that there may be bigger issues to pray for… the growth, maturity, deepening of the faith of his friends.

I have much to learn about prayer… content, passion and persistence of prayer.

Lord, continue to teach me to pray… teach me to pray with depth for my friends and Lord, if I may dare ask, to pray this way for myself.

I love You, Lord, and way to serve You with all my heart and life. Through Jesus, I pray. Amen.

 

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