Love that Knows Stuff
“And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until 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, NIV)
Sometimes girls and guys give each other lousy gifts for Christmas or Valentine’s Day. I understand. I have a terrible time knowing what to get for people. Still, you’ve got to wonder what a girl is thinking when she gives a 16-year-old guy a heart-shaped keepsake box. Or when a guy gives his girl two tickets to the monster truck rally and car show coming to the Event Center on Sunday, SunDay, SUNDAY!!! For her birthday. Maybe it’s just me, but I’m guessing they don’t know each other very well.
In this passage, Paul tells the Christians in a town called Philippi one of the things he prays for them. Turns out this is an excellent paragraph for us to pray for ourselves or others.
Paul says, in essence, ”It’s awesome how much you love God, but just loving Him isn’t enough. You’ve got to get to know Him, so you can understand what will really make Him happy.“ When I first fell for my wife, I gave her stupid gifts. My feelings were strong. Really strong. But I didn’t really know her very well. I needed to add some knowledge about her to my love. And I did want to know her better. We spent hours grilling each other about our favorite things, best and worst memories, opinions on music, movies, and anything else we could think of.
Paul’s prayer tells us that our love for God should makes us hungry to know Him better and better, too. Why? Because knowing Him helps us to understand how best to give Him our lives in the way He wants. How does someone who loves God relate to their parents? How does that person deal with truth? How does that person pick a college or a boy/girl friend? Knowing the God I love leads to making better choices for Him. In the end, it’s all about bringing Him glory by living a life that really matters.
Why not take a few minutes every day this week to pray this short paragraph for yourself and one other Christian? And girls, bonus gift-buying tip: Most guys don’t like heart-shaped . . . anything. I’m just saying.
Sometimes girls and guys give each other lousy gifts for Christmas or Valentine’s Day. I understand. I have a terrible time knowing what to get for people. Still, you’ve got to wonder what a girl is thinking when she gives a 16-year-old guy a heart-shaped keepsake box. Or when a guy gives his girl two tickets to the monster truck rally and car show coming to the Event Center on Sunday, SunDay, SUNDAY!!! For her birthday. Maybe it’s just me, but I’m guessing they don’t know each other very well.
In this passage, Paul tells the Christians in a town called Philippi one of the things he prays for them. Turns out this is an excellent paragraph for us to pray for ourselves or others.
Paul says, in essence, ”It’s awesome how much you love God, but just loving Him isn’t enough. You’ve got to get to know Him, so you can understand what will really make Him happy.“ When I first fell for my wife, I gave her stupid gifts. My feelings were strong. Really strong. But I didn’t really know her very well. I needed to add some knowledge about her to my love. And I did want to know her better. We spent hours grilling each other about our favorite things, best and worst memories, opinions on music, movies, and anything else we could think of.
Paul’s prayer tells us that our love for God should makes us hungry to know Him better and better, too. Why? Because knowing Him helps us to understand how best to give Him our lives in the way He wants. How does someone who loves God relate to their parents? How does that person deal with truth? How does that person pick a college or a boy/girl friend? Knowing the God I love leads to making better choices for Him. In the end, it’s all about bringing Him glory by living a life that really matters.
Why not take a few minutes every day this week to pray this short paragraph for yourself and one other Christian? And girls, bonus gift-buying tip: Most guys don’t like heart-shaped . . . anything. I’m just saying.
2 Comments:
nice article!
We girls also like jewelry. :]
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