Category Archives: Philippians

Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice! Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do. Remember, the Lord is coming soon.
Philippians 4:4-5

Dear God, yes! This is exactly the type of verse I wanted to find this morning. Thank you for making it Bible Gateway’s verse of the day.

Why was I looking for a verse like this? Because I have a presentation tonight to a political group. And it doesn’t matter what type of political group or where they are on the “left” to “right” spectrum. There is a lot of anger and animosity out there, and I am sure there will be at least a little in the room tonight. When I woke up this morning, the word I felt like I was getting from you was to be a source of joy and hope to them. The goal for the evening is to leave them with joyful, tender hearts that are full of hope for how we can ALL work together for your glory.

So I sat down this morning and hoped I could find a verse to pray over today. That’s when I opened up www.biblegateway.com and saw the verse of the day at the top of the page. Thank you.

So this is my prayer–that I would be the embodiment of this passage. That I would be full of joy. That I would rejoice in ALL things. That I would be considerate in all that I do. And that I would be mindful that you are real, you are my God and to be worshipped, and that one way or another, I will one day meet you face to face–whether it be in death or your second coming.

Father, full the room tonight with your Holy Spirit. Fill it with your joy. Love through me. Represent yourself through me. And for any hearts in there that aren’t yours, turn them to you.

In Jesus’s name I pray,

Amen

I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.
Philippians 3:14

Dear God, I wonder if the person who chooses the Bible Gateway verse of the day was involved in Fellowship of Christian Athletes in the 80s, because the Hebrews 11:1 from two days ago and now the Philippians 3:14 are both verse that were themes for national conferences I went to in 1984 and 1985. Anyway, it’s always neat when I run into one of these verses, but is really special when it happens twice in three days.

I’ve been at a hospital conference the last few days and one of the topics that has come up often is the appropriateness of care—especially end-of-life care. We have reached a point in our society where we have much more control over what the end of the race looks like than we did when Paul wrote these words. The end of the road often came fast and abruptly for them. The prize of which she speaks was much closer at hand. I am 48 now. If I had lived then I would probably be an elder. On the board on which I sit, I am the second youngest. Technology has changed so much over the last 100 years—even the last 20 years. So much so that we have started to adopt an attitude that we don’t want the prize. If we get sick, we want to do everything we can to run the race. But not necessarily to run the race for you, but to race for ourselves. We want to see our grandchildren do this or that. We don’t want to leave our spouse or our children. As I sit here and think about it, our reason for wanting to continue to run is probably all wrong.

Father, I will have decisions to make about myself and my life one day. I will possibly have to make a decision for my wife. I might have to counsel my parents or siblings. In fact, recently, I had to counsel a patient about calling hospice. But when I get to those times, help me to remember that life is truly all about the prize, and the race itself is not about me and the “bucket list” things on my agenda. It’s about running the race for you you, through Christ Jesus, called me.

In Jesus’ name I pray,

Amen

…though I could have confidence in my own effort if anyone could. Indeed, if others have reason for confidence in their own efforts, I have even more! I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I am a pure-blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin—a real Hebrew if there ever was one! I was a member of the Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law. I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church. And as for righteousness, I obeyed the law without fault. I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith. I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!

Philippians 3:4-11

Dear God, knowing Christ and becoming one with him. That’s the goal.

It makes me think of the best people I’ve ever known. None of them had to tell me how great they were. None of them told me about other people’s weaknesses and put them down. At their funerals, they are the kind of people about whom others say, “I never heard them say a negative thing about anyone else.” Those are people who know what grace is and have become completely comfortable in renouncing their own self-righteousness and embracing knowing Jesus and becoming one with him.

Father, move me closer to that today. Move me closer to being a builder and not a destroyer. Help me to reject the lie of self-righteousness and embrace the idea that my hope is built on nothing more or less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.

I pray all of this through the power of His name,

Amen

And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.

Philippians 1:6

Dear God, I can feel myself getting better. Not that I am becoming a better and better person, but I am learning to lean more on you throughout the day when I run into struggles. I can think of two specific examples of tiles at work recently when I came up against something that flummoxed me, I prayed to you about it in real time, and you brought me an answer. There was no brilliance on my part. In both moments, I was scared and frustrated, and I silently talked to you about needing your help and intervention. In one case, you gave me the words to say. In another you actually gave me some small miracles in answer to my prayer.

I still have so much growing to do, but it is awfully nice to feel like I am maturing in you at least a little. Of course, I’ve been pursuing you as a discipline Christian for over 30 years so one could make the case that I’ve hardly grown at all over that time. But again, I’m grateful that I at least feel like I’m making progress, and I’m grateful that that progress is learning to lean more on you and less on me.

Father, I want get to the point where every breath I take is in communion with you. It’s hard to imagine ever getting there. And I have to wonder what kind of person I’d be like to live with if I got to that level. But I trust that any growth I have in you will bring me closer to my wife and who you need me to be for her, not push us apart. So today is another day. Bless the work of my hands, but do it for your glory’s sake and because it’s the work you want done.

In Jesus’ name I pray,

Amen

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:6-7

Dear God, there have been times during difficult trials that I’ve had to lean on passages like this and I had varying degrees of success. Sometime I have done it right, come to you, laid it at your feet, experienced peace, and things even worked out in a good way. Then there were times when I went through trials and I was so distraught I didn’t know how to pray. And then there are the trials I just tried to fix on my own. And sometimes my solution works, but I miss you, your power and glory, and your peace in the process.

When I was unemployed in 2003 & 2005, I came up with a line that there’s a fine line between living by faith and living in denial. I can say I’m praying about something, and I can say that I have faith that God (you) will provide, but the truth is I’m just ignoring it and hoping it all works out. That is dangerous on a lot of levels, but again it misses out on an opportunity to grow closer to you. It is good to pray and have faith that you will provide, but it is not good to abdicate response and wait for you to fix my situation without knocking on different doors to see if you will open them as a way out.

Father, help me to always bring my little problems and my big problems to you. Help me to experience your peace and joy in a complete and unreasonable way. Give me that peace that passes all understanding and then help me to share that peace and the pathway that leads to it with others.

In Jesus’ name I pray,

Amen

You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.

Philippians 2:5-8

Dear God, I need to do a word study on the word humble because it has been coming up a lot for me over the last eight days. I know I’ve mentioned this before in my journals this week, starting with the one I wrote last Saturday night before I preached. Maybe I’ll take some time to do that this week.

I’ll tell you, I did have one humbling thing come up in my work life the last couple of weeks— surveys. I decided a couple of weeks ago that we needed to survey our patients at work. I’ll admit that I was nervous because you never know what’s going to come back. Then, about five days after that, the consultant doing our board strategic planning retreat said she wanted to do surveys of our staff, board, volunteers, donors and community partners. The one with the staff really made me think twice. There have been some frustrations and factions develop between some of the staff members and my first concern was that it would come out in the surveys and reflect poorly on me to the board. But then I had two thoughts.

1. No, this is why you do these things. If there’s something they need to know then this will tell it.
2. (And this is where I’m being really honest with you, God) if I resist then it will make me look like I’m hiding something.
3. I’ve actually already told some board members about the conflicts about which I know, so if something does come out it might surprise some of them, but others can tell them that these are problems I’ve been trying to address. Maybe I haven’t been adequate in handling them, but I haven’t tried to sweep them under the rug or hide them either.

Father, it all starts with humility. Then that leads to repentance. Then that leads to loving you and loving others. So I am truly sorry for my sins. I can think of some from yesterday. I will strive to spend some time worshipping you and others today. And please use these surveys at work to make all of us better.

In Jesus’ name I pray,

Amen

Do everything without complaining and arguing,

Philippians 2:14

Dear God, this can be a hard one, but so powerful if done well. I’ve always admired the people that, when they die, people say about them, “She/he never had a negative thing to say about anyone.” Unfortunately, I don’t think that will be said of me when I die. I’m better about it than I used to be, but I still enjoy a little gossip or criticizing others. It feeds something in me that is insecure and wants to get the love of the person with whom I am dishing.

Then there’s the complaining. Yes, I can complain too. I don’t think I complain about my personal life as much, I can can certainly join in the griping about politics or others I know in the community. Then there are the friends who complain to me about others (and they often have legitimate complaints) and I sometimes just join them in their pity party instead of helping them find their way out.

Father, help me to live up to the words and spirit of this verse. Help me to move through my day without complaining or arguing. Help me to be an instrument of your peace. And if an argument comes my way, help me to meet it calmly and deal with it gracefully.

In Jesus’ name I pray,

Amen