Let The Lord Show

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 1so that you may be able to discern what is best and may 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

Yesterday, we dove into Paul’s prayer in Philippians 1 and began learning about the things we should be praying for as Christians. The first prayer we discussed is that we should pray that our love would grow and not stay stagnant. If you missed yesterday’s devotional, I strongly urge you to go back and read it.

Today, we’re going to talk about two more things we can pray for, which Paul models for us in his prayer to the Philippians. Let’s dive in.

The second prayer is to pray that your light will glow. In verse 10 of today’s key passage, Paul compares our lives to a light. That is why he talked about letting our light shine before others. He is telling us not just to pray about our love, but to pray about our light - the way we live. It begins with praying to, “be able to discern what is best.” The word “discern” literally means “test.” It was a technical term that was used for determining a counterfeit or determining the real from the fake.

The biggest challenge you face in making decisions is not trying to discern between what is good and what is bad. That is easy. The challenge is discerning between what is better and what is best. So many times, people settle for what is better instead of waiting for what is best. But if we’re going to let our light glow, we need to practice the kind of discernment that helps us distinguish between the two.

Finally, the third prayer is to pray that your Lord will show. The purpose of your praying should not be the gifts you can get from God, but the glory you can give to God. And we show God’s glory by producing fruit. Paul talks about this “the fruit of righteousness” in today’s key passage. The thing about agriculture is that it is the root that determines the fruit. Well, what is the root of righteousness? It is not what – it is who, and that is Jesus.

You will never have any righteousness before God until you are right with God. You will never be right with God until you surrender your life to Jesus Christ as Lord because you are not the star of the show. He is the star of the show, and the spotlight is always to be on Him.

Dear Lord, thank you for giving me the example of what to pray for through Paul. I ask that you will help my light to glow and that you will show through my efforts to glorify you by the way I live my life and love others. In Jesus’ name, amen.