THE VERSE
I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy.~Philippians 1:3-4
THE THOUGHT
When you pray for people, how do you pray? Do you for them as a benefactor, asking for health or guidance or whatever else for them? Of course, we are commanded to pray for all of these things for our brothers and sisters in Christ. But we must be careful how we pray, for if we only pray for others with the kind of attitude that says, “God, please grant such and such to my friend,” then we are in danger of two pitfalls. First, we make God out to be a Santa Claus-type figure who exists to answer our prayers, and second, it puts us into a dangerous position of spiritual pride that only notices what is lacking in others—be it health or wisdom or some other virtue.Again, God wants us to come to Him daily with our requests for ourselves and others. We should always be sensitive to the needs of those around us, constantly carrying them to God in prayer. But Paul’s example of prayer for the Philippians gives us invaluable instruction as to what our attitude should be in prayer. Our prayers for others (and for ourselves for that matter) should be characterized by one primary emotion: gratitude. Notice Paul: “I thank my God in all my remembrance of you.” Paul is acutely aware of the grace of God at work in their lives, and even with all of his necessary instruction and correction and petitions, the overwhelming cry of Paul’s heart is, “Thank you, God, for what you are doing in their lives!”
We can cultivate this attitude of humble gratefulness by continually reminding ourselves of our own unworthiness before God, and of the amazing reaches of His grace towards people like us. If we are acutely aware of God’s grace towards us, of how much we have been forgiven, of how great a debt we no longer bear, it will naturally make us more aware of God’s grace at work in others as well. Then, before praying for healing for a friend, we will be more likely to thank God for His sustaining grace to them in illness. Before praying for a friend who is struggling with sin, we will be more likely to thank God for all the ways he has been at work in their lives. By always keeping our prayers near to Calvary, we will begin more and more to pray like Paul: “I thank my God in all my remembrance of you.”
THE PRAYER
Dear God, There are so many things I want to bring before You on behalf of those I love, but before I do, I want to thank You first. Thank you for all the ways You are at work; thank you for Your saving grace lavished on those who believe, for all the ways You are making Yourself known in their lives, for how You are sustaining and encouraging and growing them and making them more like You. And thank you for Your almighty mercy towards a sinner like me, for raising me from the dead and giving me life, hope, and a future. Thank you for everything that You do for us.EXTENDED READING
Philippians 1:3-7Colossians 1:3-5
1 Corinthians 1:4-9
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