A Wise Prayer

I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding. For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ’s return. May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation—the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ—for this will bring much glory and praise to God.

Philippians 1:9-11

THIS IS ONE of those tremendous prayers Paul prayed for his converts. In it we see Paul’s heart, what he truly wanted most for those people. Notice what he prays for. Not financial or material success. Not healing from every kind of affliction. Not a spouse or a family or even that believers would find the right church to attend.

No, Paul was concerned about spiritual realities. He wanted those following Christ to overflow with love toward one another in the church and outside it. He wanted them to comprehend “what really matters.” This would lead them to live “pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ’s return.” Above all, he wanted believers to have righteous character—demonstrating goodness, holiness, and justice to the world.

It’s so easy for us to slip into the mundane in our prayers. How much time, though, do we pray about “what really matters”? If you take this kind of praying seriously, God will bring the fruit of righteousness into your life. Be the kind of person described in the verses above, and you’ll be able to truly change your world.