I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Phil. 1:3-6
Dear heavenly Father, unlike Paul as I pray this morning, I’m not enduring an inconvenient Roman imprisonment; I’m enjoying a comfortable chair and cup of coffee in my den. But very much like Paul, the older I get the more I treasure a tapestry of friends who share one huge thing in common—a partnership in the gospel. It’s awesomely sweet to think of all the people I know who will live this very day primarily wanting to know Jesus better, and to make him known.
Father, thank you for writing us into your story of redeeming grace and transforming love. Many of us were rescued from gospel-less religion, others from some expression of paganism or hedonism, or materialism or moralism. But whatever our “ism”, we now rest fully and gratefully in the finished work of Jesus.
Thank you for the gospel, Father; thank you that though each of us matters, Jesus is the point. Thank you for rescuing us from dreams that didn’t include you, religion that didn’t require Jesus, and from anything that kept us allergic to grace. Thank you for the freedom we now enjoy to boast in Christ and in our weaknesses, and to pretend less and depend more.
And, Father, thank you for promising to complete the good work you began in us and in our world. Help us increasingly see the connection between the two. Now that you’ve freed us from all guilt and condemnation, free us for more engagement and servanthood in our communities. Intensify our joy in giving ourselves away to others. Stoke the flames of our compassion, for the least and the lost. Give us laser vision of Jesus and of the coming City of God, that we may live and love to your glory, until that blessed Day. So very Amen we pray, in Jesus’ merciful and mighty name.
