CCC Gainesville | Blog
Nope.
I don’t find my heart resonating with Paul’s.
Thanksgiving as a primal and primary response to the Christians that He knows? How I needed (need, and will need) to hear Paul’s words in Philippians
I thank God upon every remembrance of you.
I was helped by this reflection by Jim Boice:
Isn’t it interesting that the first word of Paul’s prayer in his various letters involve thanksgiving? Paul did this:
— with the church in Philippi (1:3) where there was MUCH to be thankful about
–with the church in Rome (Romans 1:8) whom he had not yet met
— with the church in Corinth (1 Cor.1:4) who were behaving badly as Christians and causing Paul much distress.
In his prayers Paul always thanked God for the evidence of spiritual blessings among Christians. Although Paul was sensitive to the problems in his churches, he was even more sensitive to the mercies of God. He knew people’s hearts. He knew that there is no good in man that can satisfy God. He knew that Christians live a great deal of their lives in the flesh instead of in the Spirit. He knew that we all fall short of what God would like us to be. But Paul also was acquainted with God’s grace and he gloried in it. He knew that God has provided wonderfully for His children—for their salvation and for their constant and continuing growth in the Christian life. Consequently, Paul was continually thankful for these things. –James Montgomery Boice was a minister of 10th Presbyterian Church in Philly last century
Oh God, work it in me, work it in all of us.
Spread the word!
