Philippians 1
Have you ever started reading a passage and then you couldn’t really get much further? As if God was showing you something, but not sure what it is. Like you want to keep reading, however you don’t have peace about moving forward. I’ve been there recently… and you guessed it: Philippians 1 (Title gave that one away). You can read the entire chapter at the bottom of this post.
The more I do this ministry stuff, the more I find times of needing encouragement (ever feel that way?). So, I try to take a slow methodic approach towards the scriptures, to seek for God’s encouragement through it all. And man… I look at Paul, who is encouraging others! Oh, and when he is in a slew of craziness… Wait what… Maybe I need to take Paul’s example and to gain encouragement through my crazy, I need to encourage others in their crazy.
First thing striking me lately is to Thank God for others: 3 I thank my God every time I remember you.
Seriously every time? I’ve been taking a good look at the people who have invested into me over the years, and I wouldn’t be who I am without their involvement in my life. Then I start to think about the people I didn’t particularly like on my life journey… Thank God for them too? I’m working on that, and feel I’m making strides towards forgiving them and getting to a point of thanking God for them too.
9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.
Prayer! Yeah, we always say it. But what keeps jumping off the page at me, Paul is praying for people to know God better, grow in knowledge & understanding. Also, he is praying they will love God better. When all gets tough, good, happy, sad, tough, strange, awkward, and all those other things, Paul was praying that you and I would learn to Love God better. I don’t know about you, but there are times when I just get selfish. When I want my wants, my way, my ideas… My. My. Me. I. I guess Paul knew we would need to understand MORE of God’s Love to have a deeper and better focus of God’s Love.
Today… I’m going to pray God will fill me up with knowledge, understanding and Love. I’m also going to pray that for you, and Thank God for you!
What’s your reaction to Philippians 1? (That’s just my first couple verses into the chapter!) Let me know what God is showing you in Philippians 1.
