Praying in the Right Order

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ… - Philippians 1:9-10

When Paul prayed for his friends in the Roman city of Philippi, he didn’t pray that they would be pure and blameless in order that they’d be able to discern better what was best and then would know how to love. That was NOT the sequence of the prayer.

And Paul did not pray that they would be able to discern what was best so that they could then figure out who and what to love well and then go on to be pure and blameless. That was NOT the sequence of the prayer.

What Paul prayed for first and foremost - and with emphasis (“more and more” and “abound” and the ways he put it) is that they would love with excellence. Paul puts the first two commandments first in his prayer - that we’d love really well. And from that love flows a very important “SO THAT” - because Paul knew that if they loved well then that’s where we’d get discernment of God’s will. If we loved well, that’s where we’d figure out what was the best decision in each situation. And finally, if we loved well and had that wisdom that came from loving well, then all the moral stuff of goodness and rightness would follow after and not be nearly as much of a big deal.

Spend some time praying for yourself, your friends, your family, your church, and others today - but do it in Paul’s order. Here is is again for you:

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ… - Philippians 1:9-10