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PEAKING TO THE SOUL

I am praying that you will put into action the generosity that comes from your faith as you understand and experience all the good things we have in Christ. Your love has given me much joy and comfort, my brother, for your kindness has often refreshed the hearts of God’s people.
Philemon 1:6-7 NLT

There are as many ways as one can possibly imagine to pray. Our problem is we easily get boxed in and then bogged down with rules and frameworks. These wear us down and remove joy from our encounter with God. Here Paul reminds Philemon of his natural instinct of generosity towards Onesimus, his slave, with whom Philemon may do whatsoever he chooses.

Our everyday reality is that we may know what to do. Our struggle is resisting temptation to do less than we know God asks of us. Mood, temperament, attitude – a host of factors work to distract us from behaving as God instructs us. So prayer helps us recall and implement God’s best when challenged by our preferred, and usually not such godly, responses. If we are effectively to represent God, we need to make prayer our daily touchstone.

Philemon will need to trust Paul’s word that Onesimus is a changed man and will now prove useful as a slave. It will also, I imagine, prove quite a testimony to the consistency of God if Philemon now regards Onesimus in the same way Paul describes him. In other words, Philemon needs to be the person God has made and called him to be.

No doubt Onesimus made this journey with a good deal of prayer of his own. After all, he was the property of Philemon and could expect nothing but the harshest of treatment upon his return. Yet, God’s grace is available and can cover a multitude of wrongdoing. So, when in doubt we are to pray. And when we are without doubt we are to pray, for prayer helps us find the best of ourselves and offers that to the best benefit of another.

QUESTION

Who or what does God want you to pray about or for?

PRAYER

Thank you that even if I lose the ability to move independently, I can still reach the furthest corners of the world through prayer.


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