Day #23: Paul’s Prayer for Fellow Workers (Joe Stehle)
Paul is writing to his friends – “Philemon, our beloved fellow worker” along with Apphia, Archippus, and the church in his house. Although Paul has a significant request coming later in this letter, he starts with a sincere prayer that reminds me of the importance of our ministry relationships.
Philemon 4-7 I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all of the saints, and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ. For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you.
God has blessed City Reformed with a large congregation of people who are earnestly seeking to serve God and each other. When I look around and when I see people that I know, most of the time I can think of ways that I have seen them showing God’s love to each other. This provides joy and comfort, and it refreshes the hearts of the saints. I am truly thankful for that.
Now, let’s look now specifically at Paul’s prayer. “I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers” does not tell us to do anything specific but it is Paul sharing a practice in a way that we can adopt. He thanks God each time he remembers them in prayer. The explicit message is thankfulness, so when we think of each other – either in a regular prayer time or just thinking of each other, please remember to give thanks to God. We can give thanks for the friendship of others and for how God shows his love through them.
The implicit message is that we should be remembering each other in our prayers. That is easiest for the people we know well – family, close friends, community group members, pastors and staff – but Paul also identified “the church in your house” – which basically means every person. That does not mean that we each need to pray for several hundred people by name, but it does mean that we should actively try to know the people in the church, at least those with whom we interact, and to take opportunities to pray for them as God brings them to mind.
“I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ.” The NIV version says “I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ.” Let’s be praying for each other to be active in sharing our faith – not necessarily preaching on a streetcorner, but always conscious of being an image of God’s love. The phrase “for the sake of Christ” or “in Christ” brings to mind the teaching we heard in the “Praying Church” seminar. I do not yet fully appreciate the full impact of praying to enable every good thing in us for the sake of Christ, so my request today is for you to pray for me (and all of us) that we can understand what that should mean to us as we pray for renewal as a praying church.