Always Pray with Joy
"I always pray with joy." Philippians 1:4 (NIV)
It's been a very hard two weeks. Moving my 91 year old Mama to her new memory care facility; having unexpected behavior issues with James Bruce at his adult program; juggling doctor appointments; leading a weekend out of town women's retreat; teaching two weekly women's Bible studies, and hosting college students for our church's annual mission conference have all left me running physically, emotionally, and spiritually on fumes. Thankfully, In the middle of my chaos, I've also been working through the book of Philippians using Melissa Kruger's excellent devotional Bible study In All Things.
I'm familiar enough with Philippians to know that this book was actually a letter written by the Apostle Paul to the Church in Philippi while he was imprisoned in Rome. Despite his difficult circumstances, Paul wasn't running on fumes. He was, instead, filed by joy. From beginning to end Paul encourages the Philippian Christians to rejoice in the Lord even as they faced adversity. My question has always been "How do I actually do that?"
The book of Philippians only has four chapters and is one of the shortest books in the New Testament. Initially I expected to work through the text pretty quickly, but I didn't get very far in Paul's letter before I came to these words:
" In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy" (Philippians 1:4)
Three questions quickly came to my mind and heart:
Do I always pray with joy? quickly led to
Do I ever pray with joy? and then:
How can I pray with joy?
Sadly, I had to acknowledge that I seldom pray with joy; instead I usually pray with much angst. I usually ask for a change in my circumstances instead of a change in my attitude. My "How can I pray with joy?" question slowly became a prayerful plea: "Help me pray with joy!"
I re-read the book of Philippians looking for things that brought Paul joy. Here are just a few of them:
the Philippians themselves
Christ being preached
the help and comfort from the Holy Spirit
Seeing Christ exalted
Fruitful labor
the Philippians partnership with Paul in the gospel
knowing Christ
the Philippians' generosity
growth, progress and maturity in discipleship
God's mercy in healing a friend
That list is just a sample of Paul's joy list found throughout Philippians. Paul's prayers focus on God's glory and others' joy. His attitude and posture in prayer follows the model that Jesus displayed: He empties himself of self (Philippians 2:5-7).
Wherever we are today, in whatever circumstances we may find ourselves, joy is always possible when we know Christ.
"Joy is the serious business of heaven." (C.S. Lewis)