CONTENT OF A GOSPEL CENTERED PRAYER (1) Philippians 1:9-11

In a previous blog I spoke of Paul’s prayer for the Philippian church being driven by their participation in the advancement of the gospel.  The gospel - this is what should prompt us to pray.  The question, now, is “what” do we pray for when the gospel prompts us to pray?  In short, we pray gospel centered realities over those for whom we pray.

Prayer not only involves an emotional engagement with the Lord, it also involves an intellectual understanding of the gospel itself.  Much praying is ineffective not because of the hearts of those who pray but because of the content of their praying. The Lord will only respond to those prayers that are fueled and filled with gospel realities, not mere spiritualities or sentimentalities that sound good but fall short of the Lord’s heart.  Is that not what we should be praying for in the first place – the heart of the Lord? This kind of prayer is often referred to in the Bible as praying “the will of God” and it is this prayer that the Father promises to bless and answer. Look at what Paul prays for regarding this church whom he loved.

Paul prays that their love may continually abound for one-another (v9). The kind of love Paul prays for is known as agape love.  It is the kind of love characterized by a willingness to forego personal rights and privileges for the good of another person benefit and welfare. This kind of love is what the church is commanded to reflect but cannot until those who make up the church embody this kind of love in themselves.  Paul prays for this kind of love since it is not humanly achievable; it is the singular work of the sovereign Spirit indwelling and empowering the souls of saints to model the sacrificial love example of Jesus Christ. As much of a priority as love is it, alone, is not enough. Paul asks that their may be saturated with “knowledge and all discernment” (v9).

Love is not without discernment - the ability to discriminate between different realities to determine the truth of a matter. In other words, when we pray for love we are not praying for an emotional reality but for Christians to willingly sacrifice themselves for things that are right, good and appropriate and nothing else.  In other words, love is not without moral assessment and believers should not – indeed we cannot – love everything! We should not love murder, adultery, deceitfulness, homosexuality, etc. for to do so - to love everything without distinction -  is to be without gospel discernment. Therefore, Paul is praying for the Philippians – and us - to grow in our knowledge of the Lord and His Word in such a way that we can learn to love in ways that reflect the Father’s heart.

A tremendous error that is being taught and believed in our churches today is that the Lord loves everything and everyone.  As hard as it may be to grasp, this is simply not true (read Psalm 5:4-5). This does not mean we should hate people; it simply means that we must learn that the Lord is discerning in the expression of His love and we should be too! Paul is praying these realities over the Philippians so that they might have the heart of God.

Do you pray this way? If not spend some time today asking the Lord to make these realities true, first, in you and then for those in your church family. Ask the Lord to saturate their hearts with the truth so that the truth may saturate their prayers for the saints.