And this is my prayer:

⁹And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, ¹⁰so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ,

Philippians 1:9-10

Today's passage comes from Morgan Firing's Facebook status. I read it this morning and it touched me, so I decided to use this today instead of the passage I had planned. The first verse is about growing in love. It talks about how as our knowledge and insight grow, our love will also. This is something we definitely experience at youth events, but it doesn't have to stop there. It's just that often we use those events as crutches, and only bother growing in knowledge and insight when we're at them. The rest of the time it's easier to pine for the next event. I know, I've done that plenty of times. It's a trap that's easy to fall into - even when you're an adult. Nothing can compare to the [insert youth event here] experience, so why bother trying?

But the second verse talks about how we are to apply that increase in our lives. We are supposed to use that knowledge and insight to "discern what is best". We know what's right and wrong. We know what we should be doing. This verse is straightforward. It says go out and do it! Stop making excuses! You don't have to turn your life upside down, but apply what you have learned in little steps.

The reward? To be pure and blameless until the day of Christ. This isn't talking about being good so we have no sins. You and I are sinners. We are also saints - but not vecause we try to do good things. No, we are saints because God's grace covers our sins. So what's being pure and blameless? You know that guilty feeling in the pit of your stomach when you're afraid you're goign to get caught for somethign you did? Yhe regret and the remorse? To be pure and blameless is that contended feeling - the absence of guilt. The absence of remorse. It's that happy tummy feeling. The feeling that you did the right thing. It's not for God that we do the right thing. It's not even for our own salvation. It's because it's the right thing to do. And when we do that - we know it.

I pray for those away at New Orleans, 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.

I pray this same prayer for all of you at home like me, and I encourage you to pray for those in service this week. Pray that their works will make them to shine like stars in the heaven and make them witnesses for Christ.

Amen

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