Philippians. Rejoice
Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
PRAYER:
O Lord,
Open our eyes to your Presence
Open our minds to your grace
Open our lips to your praises
Open our hearts to your love
Open our lives to your healing
And be found among us.
David Adam (Book of a Thousand Prayers)
Read:
Philippians 4:4-7 Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
4Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
(Philippians 4:4-7 NIV)
Thought for the Day:
I once heard it said that we human beings were actually made for joy. And that when we find God we find our joy again. Joyless religion is the same as no religion at all.
May you find joy in Christ today. Sit still and awhile with Christ.
Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash
Philippians. Where is your Mind?
Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
PRAYER:
O God, you are both the light and the guide of those who put their trust in you.
Grant us in all our doubts and uncertainties the grace to ask what you would have us do;
The Spirit of wisdom may save us from all false choices,
And that in your light we may see light;
Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
William Bright, C19th (Book of a Thousand Prayers)
Read:
Philippians 3:17-21 Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
17Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do. 18For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. 20But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
(Philippians 3:17-21 NIV)
Thought for the Day:
Strangely, it is possible that when Paul is referring to “enemies of the cross” he is talking about some Church leaders like Jesus did in Mt 7:15-23. Paul mentions these people while he is talking about modelling the Christian lifestyle as a leader in the church. The conclusion we can draw from this is that what you actually live for and what you say you live for, can be two very different things. In your own life this can be so as well.
Take some time to reflect on what you actually get excited about in life. What does this reveal to you? The answer will bring joy and frustration. Bring both to God in a conversation.
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Philippians. Pressing on …
Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
PRAYER:
Christ our Guide,
stay with us on our pilgrimage through life:
When we falter, encourage us,
When we stumble, steady us,
And when we fall pick us up.
Help us to become, step by step, more truly ourselves,
And remind us that you have travelled this way before us.
Angela Ashwin (Book of a Thousand Prayers, p 69)
Read:
Philippians 3:7-9 Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
7But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. 10I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
12Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
(Philippians 3:7-14 NIV)
Thought for the Day:
“I press on toward the goal to win the prize ...” What a way to experience the Christian life. Energy, struggle, persistence, and the prize that awaits. How Paul depicts his experience of Christian faith is invigorating. He knows where he is in life and he really knows where he wants to get to. Do you know what he is talking about?
Photo by Maarten van den Heuvel on Unsplash
Philippians. Knowing Christ is better than …
Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
PRAYER:
Late have I loved you,
O Beauty so ancient and so new.
You called and broke through my defences
and now I long for you.
You breathed your fragrance on me,
and I drew in my breath and now I yearn for you.
I tasted you, and now I hunger and thirst for you.
You touched me and I yearn for your peace.
Augustine of Hippo (350AD)
Read:
Philippians 3:7-9 Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
7But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him,
(Philippians 3:7-9 NIV)
Thought for the Day:
One of the challenges for people who have been Christian a long time is this; do I love Christ more than something else? It is easy to love Christ and value who he is to you but Paul compares knowing Christ to other things he has valued in his life and so is able to say he loves Christ more than X?
Paul affirms this with an emphatic shout of joy that is very clear about what has less value to him now. Can you do the same? This is not an exercise in guilt or obligation but a seeking to put your love of Christ as a clear winner in your life. In this lies joy.
Philippians. What has Value to You?
Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
PRAYER:
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
his loving kindness endures forever.
I was hard pressed, and almost fell,
but the Lord helped me.
You are my God and I will praise you.
You are my God and I will extol you.
Psalm 118:1,13,28
Read:
Philippians 3:1-7 Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
1Further, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. 2Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh. 3For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh— 4though I myself have reasons for such confidence.
If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless. 7But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.
(Philippians 3:1-7 NIV)
Thought for the Day:
Paul is obviously disgusted at a group of Jewish Christians who were teaching that nobody can be saved without being circumcised. It is a bit like those Pentecostal groups who taught that you weren’t a real Christian unless you spoke in tongues. It really upset Paul that people were undermining Christians’ simple confidence in Christ to save them. Paul is not being argumentative, rather, he is protecting those he loves from people who could really mess up their relationship with God. He is like a mother bear protecting her helpless cubs.
He showed what he really thought about the false teachers’ so-called “add ons” to faith by reminding them of how much of these valuable add ons in life he had. Then he showed how little he valued these same things as an example to the younger Christians to follow.
But the question for us is whether we are like Paul or those false teachers? Do we value Christ plus some extra thing to make us feel safe and at peace with God? What might an “add on” be in your life? Good deeds? Church attendance. Hanging out with only good people? Other ideas …
It is only by naming something that is wrong that we can begin to set it aside and be free of it. Then we find real peace as a gift from the One who love you.
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Philippians. Interests
Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
PRAYER:
It is well and good, Lord, if all things change,
provided we are rooted in you.
If I go everywhere with you, my god,
everywhere things will happen for your sake: that is what I desire.
St John of the Cross (1542-1591)
Read:
Philippians 2:19-23 Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
19I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, that I also may be cheered when I receive news about you. 20I have no one else like him, who will show genuine concern for your welfare. 21For everyone looks out for their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. 22But you know that Timothy has proved himself, because as a son with his father he has served with me in the work of the gospel. 23I hope, therefore, to send him as soon as I see how things go with me.
(Philippians 2:19-23 NIV)
Thought for the Day:
What was this deep bond between Paul and Timothy? It is not friendship because the thing that they share is not about them, it is about Jesus. Paul notices that for most people who become Christ followers they still find it hard to get rid of the old habits of self-interest (or just the interests of close friends and family). The person who gives their whole life to look out for Jesus’ interests before all else is a rare person. And Paul sees this in Timothy. What softens his old heart is not that Timothy is looking out for Paul’s interests but that he is looking out for Jesus’ interests. The very thing that Paul has given his whole life to. In that sense they are kindred spirits.
It is almost a rule of thumb that more you love and serve Jesus, the closer you are to those with the same love and purpose in life.
How can you be more like Timothy and Paul?
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Philippians. Working out your Salvation
Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
PRAYER:
Lord.
You trust me,
you free me.
you love me,
you fill me,
you share your work with me,
you are my life.
Angela Ashwin “The Book of a Thousand Prayers”
Read:
Philippians 2:12-13 Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
12Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.
(Philippians 2:12-13 NIV)
Thought for the Day:
“Continue to work out your salvation”? This is a very confusing saying if have been looking at salvation as a gift that Jesus won for us on the cross; the Son of God dying once for all. But I believe Paul is using this in the same way a prison guard might say to a prison on the day he has finished his sentence and is set free, “You are free now. What will you do with your freedom?”
What will the new life look like after you are saved by Christ? What will you make of it? It is tempting to think that God will guide us in what to do but Paul is putting the onus back on the Christian. We are responsible for our decision making in the new saved life. When we declare Christ is Lord we are not declaring that we have given up responsibility for our lives. Instead Christ guides our choices.
What will you do with your freedom?
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Philippians. Having the Mind of Christ
Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
PRAYER:
Eternal Father,
whose Son Jesus was in the fullness of his power most gentle,
and in his greatness most humble;
bestow his mind and his spirit upon us,
who have no cause for pride;
that clothed in true humility
we may discern the way of true greatness.
Hear our prayer through the same Jesus,
who is now Lord and Christ.
Paul Iles (adapted)
Read:
Philippians 2:3-11 Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
5In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
6Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
9Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
(Philippians 2:3-11 NIV)
Thought for the Day:
To have the same mindset (attitude to life) as Christ. Can you imagine that? How might your life be different if you had more of this mindset?
Find one small thing you would like to change in your thinking and acting that would let you more closely align with the mindset of Christ. Pray for this now.
What are some ways your thinking and acting does reflect the mindset of Christ. Give thanks.
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Philippians. United with Christ
Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
PRAYER:
I ask for that quietness of mind and spirit
which reflects the stillness in the heart of God,
as a calm sea reflects the shining stars.
Enable me, Lord, to hear the still small voice of eternity
speaking through the sounds of time,
that I may dwell in your peace,
and be one with your love,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Based on words by Raymond Hockley
Read:
Philippians 2:1-2 Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
1Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.
(Philippians 2:1-2 NIV)
Thought for the Day:
If …if …if… if…. It is a rhetorical but do these four statements apply to you?
Part of the joy of being united with Christ.
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