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Am I Need of Love? Do I Pray for Love?

And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. 
Philippians 1:9-11

A young boy who was in love had a break up and this was the prayer that he prayed for his former girlfriend.
"I pray a flower pot falls from a window sill and knocks you in the head like I'd like to. I pray your birthday comes and nobody calls. I pray you're flying high when your engine stalls. I pray all your dreams never come true. Just know wherever you are, honey, I pray for you."

Our prayers might not have risen to that extent but if we analyze, sometimes, it falls on the same plane as the boy who prayed when he had a breakup. But Paul was different for all of us. As he begins this letter the first things that he does is pray for the Philippians. We saw earlier in verse 3, Paul saying, "I thank my God upon every remembrance of you always in every prayer of mine making requests for you all with joy."

When we examine all the letters of St. Paul we see that in most of his letters he has included his prayer for audience to whom he is writing. The letter to the Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, Timothy and Philemon has a prayer included by Paul.

So, we can come to a conclusion that, this is a part of Paul's life. He prayed for people, and he did it regularly, and he told them what he prayed for. And I think there is nothing other than prayer life that defines a person's spiritual life. We see that Paul had a deep and abiding one.

When we examine the prayers made by Paul for people we see that, he never once prays for anything physical. What he prays for are things that he thought were much more important than just a general blessing for the church or a physical ailment. What he prayed for, were the really heart issues that matter the most. And in this case, we find out that he prays for love.

Verse 9 Paul begins by saying, "And this I pray." and he continues "that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all of discernment, that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense until the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits fof righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and the praise of God."

Paul has one thing that he is praying for, one specific thing above all else, and this is love. That is the sum of his prayer. He's praying for their love. All of the other phrases beyond that in verses 9,10,11 support that one main thought.

Now why would Paul pray for their love? Well I believe it is because that is the hallmark of their faith. Paul himself said in 1 Corinthians 13:13, "And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." And I think the reason to consider love to be the most important is because Paul knew that Jesus taught to his disciples, "by this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."(John 13:35)

Paul prays for the most important expression of their Christian faith, and that is the expression of love. By the way, just to add a note, Paul mentions the idea of love not only here, but also in those other letters I mentioned earlier with regard to prayer. So, when Paul prays for this specific thing we should not be surprised because faith is important and hope is vital but love is the culminating hallmark.

Dwight L. Moody once said something interesting. He said, you know a man can be a good doctor without loving his patients, or a good lawyer without loving his clients, or a good geologist without loving rocks or science, but a man cannot be a good Christian without love.

Dear Friends, do we need to pray that we may love? Do we have the right manner of love? In the coming days we will see the specific areas that Paul wants our love shoud be channelized.

Today for a change let us stop asking for our material and physical needs and ask for something important for our spiritual growth. As Paul asked let us too ask our Lord that we too may be filled with love.

God Bless You.
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