Keeping Busy With The Work of Love

Have you ever felt  God peacefully impressing love on your heart when praying for people? The apostle Paul expressed this sort of thing in the first chapter of Philippians :

3 I thank my God upon every remembrance of you,
4 Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy,

8 For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ.

The phrase 'bowels of Jesus Christ' refers to the innermost being of Christ that resided in Paul. We are connected to God and his son through the gift of holy spirit that we receive when we acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ as God's son who was raised from the dead and now is the head of God's church.

What is so amazing about this type of prayer is that one can be at total juxtaposition with someone and still pray in this wonderful loving way for them without feeling any negative twinge at all. The more we mature and become more Christ-like, the more we pray with clear undiluted passion for people. We set aside hurts, negative thinking and anger to literally get that innermost heart that peacefully focus on the right and good path of being clear-eyed about love:

9 And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; 10 That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ. Philippians 1:9-10

Paul was in prison at the time he wrote this. He was in a tough situation. His life was in jeopardy, he was in prison and for what? Was he charged with murder, theft or fraud, lying or libel? No, in reality he was in jail for his beliefs. His state of mind and heart under the pressure of it all is readily apparent when reading the book of Philippians.  He kept busy with the work of love. His heart's desire for the Philippians was that they superabounded more and more in love that was guided by knowledge and judgement. He wanted the Philippians the clearly see God's heart at work in their lives so that they could separate truth from error.

Truth brings joyous abundance, error brings darkness and misery. Truth loves, error brings on more error and bondage. God can show us how to deal truthfully in love and that may mean speaking up or not worrying about political correctness at times. There are times 'minding your own business' can be quite hateful and there are other times that 'minding your own business' can be quite loving. God's love is the only way the way to discriminate between the two.

Life is all about 'judgement'. Of course it is, but the  words 'judgement' and 'judgmental' have taken on a negative connotation through the years. God made our brains in a way that we must weigh, discern, think and make decisions. With God's help love makes the best judgement. That is why prayer is so important. When we have a question or a problem, God can settle our hearts in prayer and we can live in the fullness of life and help others truthfully!