Pray With Joy

Been slacking this week due to overall busyness and a nasty life-sapping cold. Still, that's no excuse.

To really kick off my daily devotions part of this blog, I'll be selecting books of the Bible I either haven't read in their entirety or haven't read recently, then going through them chapter by chapter. Wonder how many I can do in a year? Today I started with Philippians 1.

Paul begins this letter with a wonderful prayer, a "prayer of joy" (v.4) for these brothers and sisters in Philippi. In his outline of past and present prayers, he makes a point to be as selfless as possible with his prayers -- he thanks God for what God has done in these people, for God's continuing work in them, for shared grace, and for their love to grow "more and more in knowledge and depth of insight" (v.9). This is a bubbly prayer, a prayer where your leg jiggles because you're so excited inside that you can't keep it in. I know the feeling Paul's expressing here, and it's hard to describe. Sort of like when there's perfect weather, when a lot of things just suddenly swing your way, and when it seems like nothing in life can get you down.

I'll try to pray with joy today. There's a lot to cloud my mind, with a busy lock-in and preparations and the mission trip and February calendars and fundraisers and school... but there's undoubtably far more to be joyful about.

The kicker in this chapter comes in verse 13, when we discover that Paul is writing this letter from prison ("in chains for Christ"), and yet he's still overflowing with joy and fierce passion for the gospel. A very famous verse: "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain." (v.21)