Remembering in Joy
"I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now;...." Phil. 1:3-5 KJV
This thought is continued and we will work with the total piece in another post. What the Lord stopped me with in this passage, is the phrase, "in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy..." Paul is so blessed to have them as friends and partners that he simply overflows in joy during his prayer time for them. That is a wonderful thing - to be so blessed by people we pray for that we just overflow in joy when we remember them in prayer.
I wonder if we are in that place? Somehow, the sorrow of current thinking on Intercession seems to decrease the joy of personal interaction in prayer. As Paul intercedes, he is not rehearsing their problems, nor insufficiencies, nor failures (all of which he knows I am sure). He is, instead, filled with overflowing joy that they exist, that they are in the body with him and supporting him in his work. He seems to discount whatever circumstances that might be troublesome for them (later we will encounter some of this in chapter 2), and is just exuberant in his joy for them before God.
As we pray for one another, may we catch a glimpse of this in our spirits and bubble up with great thanksgiving and joy to the Lord for allowing us to know one another and be together in the body. As we intercede, we are not giving God unknown information. It is much better to trust Him with the situations, than to rehearse them in front of Him in a way that discounts His action of goodness in those same situations. He is so able, and we would probably know that more if we bubbled overboard in joy in remembering one another. May it become so in us.
This thought is continued and we will work with the total piece in another post. What the Lord stopped me with in this passage, is the phrase, "in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy..." Paul is so blessed to have them as friends and partners that he simply overflows in joy during his prayer time for them. That is a wonderful thing - to be so blessed by people we pray for that we just overflow in joy when we remember them in prayer.
I wonder if we are in that place? Somehow, the sorrow of current thinking on Intercession seems to decrease the joy of personal interaction in prayer. As Paul intercedes, he is not rehearsing their problems, nor insufficiencies, nor failures (all of which he knows I am sure). He is, instead, filled with overflowing joy that they exist, that they are in the body with him and supporting him in his work. He seems to discount whatever circumstances that might be troublesome for them (later we will encounter some of this in chapter 2), and is just exuberant in his joy for them before God.
As we pray for one another, may we catch a glimpse of this in our spirits and bubble up with great thanksgiving and joy to the Lord for allowing us to know one another and be together in the body. As we intercede, we are not giving God unknown information. It is much better to trust Him with the situations, than to rehearse them in front of Him in a way that discounts His action of goodness in those same situations. He is so able, and we would probably know that more if we bubbled overboard in joy in remembering one another. May it become so in us.
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