Prayer's of Paul reading plan day 6.

              As a church family at Bethel Baptist church in Brookings, SD we are spending the next two weeks reading through most of the prayers of Paul.  Each day I will share my thoughts and reflections on here the day after the reading.  The encouragement was that we would read the assigned passages, write down some observations about what we read, and use those prayers to help us in our prayers that day.  Saturday's readings were Philippians 1:9-11, Colossians 1:3-8.  

Philippians 1:9-11

"And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so the you may approve what is excellent and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God."  

Paul here prays one of his frequent prayers in praying for the increase of love and unity amongst believers.  Here Paul is specifically praying that the believers love would abound more and more.  Are you praying that your love for God and others would abound more and more?  Do you pray this for your local church?  Do you pray this for the believers who God has placed in your life?  Do you pray this for the global church?  We need to be.  But we should also note that this isn't a love that is just based upon feelings or a love that is based on whatever feels good.  Notice what Paul says... That you may abound more and more in love, with knowledge and discernment.  This is a love based on knowledge, this is a love based on discernment.  Why does Paul pray that they would abound more and more in their love?  So that they might grow in others areas as well.  In this prayer it is clear that one who is abounding more and more in their love will grow in a few others way also.  

        First, they will better be able to approve what is excellent.  When we abound in love based on knowledge and discernment we will love that which is excellent, and not that which is empty, fleeting, or against God's word.  Secondly, we will become pure and blameless as we love more and therefore know that which is excellent and that which is not.  Thirdly, we will see fruit of righteousness in our lives.  As we grow in love we will see the fruit (the result) of being in Christ in our day to day life.  We will live differently.  So Paul prays for all of this to happen ultimately so that God would be given glory and praise for the work that he does in all these areas.  

       So a lot happens as a result of abounding more and more in our love!  So let's spend time today praying that people would abound more and more in their love and at the end of the day give glory and praise to God for the work that He has done!  

     

Colossians 1:3-8, 

"We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Chrst, when we pray for you, since we hared of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.  Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gopsel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole it is bearing fruit and increasing- as it also does among  you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth.  Just as you learned it from Epaphras our believed fellow servant.  He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf and has made known to us your love in the Spirit."  

       Paul here offers a prayer of thanksgiving for the believers in Colossae.  What I want us to notice is that this thanksgiving is focused on giving thanks to God for the way in which God has been working in the lives of the believers!  It is clear that God, not the believers in Colassae, is the hero!  In our prayers of thanksgiving for others, and when we are actually thanking other people it is wise to present our thanksgiving in such a way that both of us see God as the hero for the good that has happened.  Paul specifically gives thanks for the way in which the Gospel has come to them and as a result of the gospel coming to them they are bearing fruit and increasing even more in bearing more fruit.  Do you have a friend or family member who you have seen having increased fruit in their life as the result of what God is doing?  Take time to thank God for that and tell the person that.  Just be sure to do it in a way that makes it clear that God is the hero and He alone is the one that deserves all praise for the work that is being done in people's lives.