I thank my God for every remembrance of you, always in every one of my prayers for all of you, praying with joy for your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to think this way about all of you, because I hold you in my heart, for all of you are my partners in God’s grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the tender affection of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what really matters, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God. I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually resulted in the progress of the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to everyone else that my imprisonment is for Christ, and most of the brothers and sisters, having been made confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, dare to speak the word with greater boldness and without fear. (Philippians 1:3-14, NRSVue)
Paul’s epistles start out mainly the same way, with an admonition of prayer. Paul starts his letters by saying I have been praying for you, and I am so thankful y’all are in my life.
This life of prayer is something that I saw in Tanzania. Every time we got in a vehicle to go somewhere, we stopped and someone would pray for the day and the journey.
We had morning prayer most days and life was steeped in prayer.
It was a way to always remind us what we were there and what the purpose of our lives was.
When was the last time you spoke to God?
When was the last time you thanked God for the people in your life?
Maybe we can all start steepingour lives in prayer.
