Philippians 1:3-11
3 I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, 4 always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. 6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. 7 It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace,[d] both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. 8 For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. 9 And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, 10 so that you may approve what is excellent, and so 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.
I just noticed the verse for the day, and it struck me! vs 6 “He who began a good work in you, will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ”. What a wonderful promise!!!
This verse is in the midst of a passage that speaks of fellowship with other believers. Paul is thinking about his fellow workers in Christ. He is in prayer for them – remembering them with joy, thinking about how they were fellow workers with him – in spreading the gospel (good news) of Jesus Christ.
So what does your life look like? Have you trusted in Jesus as your savior? Do you know that HE died on the cross for your sins? He then rose from the dead 3 days later – HE is our risen Lord! He took the penalty for our sins when HE died on the cross. Our punishment was eternity in hell, separated from God forever – now, we can spend eternity with God. Wow, what a marvelous gift. We can do nothing to earn our salvation – we have to just believe that Jesus died for our sins!!!
If you are a believer, do you express your thankfulness to God for this great salvation? Are you sharing this good (fantastic) news with others around you? Are you in a local fellowship of believers so that you can grow more in the Lord? Are you encouraging those around you? Paul speaks about his fellow believers partaking with him while he was in prison – praying for them, encouraging him. We are to show the world God’s love by loving HIS disciples / believers.
The rest of Paul’s prayer is so precious. He is praying that our love may abound more and more – that it grows in knowledge and discernment. This is growing in the Lord, spending time with Him in the Word (Bible) and in prayer. This draws us closer to God, it grows us in HIS wisdom. If we follow the Bible’s teachings our lives will be fully blessed. Our relationships will be blessed as well – as we consider one another in love and good works.
The last verse speaks of being “filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ”! What a blessing! When I first read verse 6, I was thinking about when we are saved, God does not just leave us….. He is there to walk us through this life! He is there to help us to grow in HIM! He is there to help us to be filled with the FRUIT of RIGHTEOUSNESS that is thru Jesus! We are so blessed!!! All of this is for the glory and praise of God!
I am so thankful to GOD that HE loves us so much – that HE wants to raise us from this life of sin! Thank you God for thinking of us, for loving us so much that You sent Your only Son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins.
I pray that you can praise God with me in this glorious gift!!! 🙂
