Philippians: Shine Like Stars – DAY 7
Family Discussions for a New School Year
[It only takes 6 1/2 min. to read this aloud!]
*This is DAY 7. For previous posts, click here.
DAY 7/THURSDAY
Philippians 1:3-6
In All My Prayers
“I thank my God every time I remember you.
Philippians 1:3-6 (NIV)
4In all my prayers for all of you,
I always pray with joy
5because of your partnership in the gospel
from the first day until now,
6being confident of this,
that He who began a good work in you
will carry it on to completion
until the day of Christ Jesus.”
On DAY 6, we found in a quick survey of “thanks” in the New Testament that the apostle Paul prayed a lot of prayers for a lot of people. In v.4 above, he said, “In all my prayers for all of you,” meaning he prayed a lot of prayers for all of the Philippian believers. This leads me to ponder: How does my prayer life compare to Paul’s?
Personal Prayer Assessment
Ask yourselves the following questions without answering them aloud. Just think for a moment what your honest answers might be.
What are my prayers usually like?
- Short, or long, or differing lengths?
- Often, or rare, or somewhere in between?
- Routine (the same thing over and over) or original (different every time)?
- Me-focused, or others-focused, or God-focused?
- Bible-based, or just what I guess I should pray, or what I’ve learned to pray from someone else?
Not all of these questions have one right answer; however, the Bible has clear answers to some of them.
Pray often.
Length of prayer is actually not that important. How often you pray is. Remember I Thessalonians 5:17?
“…pray without ceasing…”
I Thessalonians 5:17 (ESV)
Obviously, this doesn’t mean we are to drop everything else we’ve been doing, kneel down, and pray until our hearts stop beating. Rather, we are to make prayer a part of our lifestyle. I think of it as an ongoing conversation with God that I can pick up or leave off at any moment as I go about my day.
A lifestyle of prayer does, however, require some intentional, focused, maybe even scheduled times of prayer. Plan prayer for moments when you can be alone in a quiet place. The start of the day and/or the end of the day are usually good times. Some people I know enjoy praying aloud in the car as they drive. Lunch breaks may work for others.
- If you can’t be alone, try to find a quiet place.
- If you can’t be in the quiet, at least try to be alone.
- Make prayer a priority!
Whether your prayers are short or long, spoken aloud, whispered, or written down, you need to pray often. God wants to be in conversation with you! It may be hard to wrap your mind around it, but it’s true.
Pray in a biblical way.
It’s easy to pray in ways that are not God’s best for us. How can we know how we should pray? We can study prayer in the Bible.
Don’t panic! We don’t have to study every prayer in the Bible before we are able to pray in a biblical, godly way. The Lord’s Prayer is a good place to start.
This is how Jesus taught His disciples to pray:
“Our Father which art in heaven,
Matthew 6:9-13 (KJV)
Hallowed be Thy name. 10Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. 11Give us this day our daily bread. 12And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. 13And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.”
[Don’t be thrown off by “Thy” and “Thine.” I used the King James Version for this one because it is the traditional version I (and many others) memorized as a child. To read this in the NIV, ESV, or NLT, click here.]
It is a good thing to repeat this prayer until you have it memorized. After that, it is good to use as a pattern for prayer. In the same chapter of Matthew that Jesus gives His disciples this prayer, He also warns them about the dangers of repetition.
“When you pray, don’t babble on and on as the Gentiles (those who don’t worship God) do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again. 8Don’t be like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask Him!”
Matthew 6:7-8 (NLT)
In the ESV, it says “do not heap up empty phrases.” When you pray, your words and your intentions matter. Don’t pray what you don’t mean. A long prayer is fine if you think about what you’re saying and really mean it. A short prayer is fine if you say what you mean! Repeating a prayer is good if you’re thinking about what you’re speaking; but if you don’t mean it, it’s just “babbling.”
- Don’t pray what you don’t mean.
- Also, don’t pray as if God doesn’t know you.
“…for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask Him!”
Matthew 6:8 (NLT)
God knows you completely (I Corinthians 13:12). He created you, & is with you always (Psalm 139). You can talk to Him about anything, anytime, so don’t waste your time on stuff you don’t mean. Get real with God!
How do our prayers compare to Paul’s?
If you do a quick survey of Paul’s prayers recorded in Scripture, you can easily see what was and was not important to him in prayer. We will see more of this as we read through Philippians. For now, look at what we can learn from the verses we’ve already read.
“Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus,
To all God’s holy people in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons:
2Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.3I thank my God every time I remember you. 4In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 1:1-6 (NIV)
In prayer, it was important to Paul to:
- be thankful to God for fellow believers;
- remember fellow believers (pray for them);
- pray with joy because other people knew the gospel and were sharing it;
- pray with joy because God was doing good works in other people.
I want to pray more like Paul. May God continue to work in us, helping us develop hearts that are more thankful for the believers in our lives, starting with those in our own family.
DAY 7/THURSDAY Prayer
Father God,
Thank You for the people in our lives who believe in You, have received Jesus as their Lord & Savior, and want to share the gospel with others and live it out.
Make us more thankful day by day for our brothers- and sisters-in-Christ. May we learn to “pray without ceasing,” making prayer with You part of our lifestyle.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen.
DAY 7: Paul sets a good example for us by praying a lot, especially for his fellow believers, and by being thankful for them.