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.
Scripture
Philemon
4 I
always thank my God when I pray for you, Philemon,
6 And 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.
7 Your love
has given me much joy and comfort, my brother, for your kindness has
often refreshed the hearts of God’s people.
Observation
In
case you are not familiar with the short book in the Bible called
Philemon I will give you a very quick synopsis; it is a very small 25
verse letter written by the Apostle Paul to a Christian who was also
a slave owner and his name was Philemon.
Paul
wrote the letter to Philemon to let him know that one of his slaves
named Onesimus that had run away from Philemon had run straight into
the life of the Apostle Paul and had come to faith in Christ and was
now a fellow brother in the Lord. And the Apostle Paul was asking
Philemon to have mercy on his new brother in Christ - Onesimus.
It
is incomprehensible for us to think that a brother in Christ could
also be an owner of a slave or many slaves. But even in the history
of our country we have experienced the same horrible thing! It wasn't
right then, wasn't right when it happened in our country and a human
owning another human is never right, never will be right!
But
that is not what I am writing about today. I want to focus on verse
six!
Let
me paraphrase it: I am praying that you will be as generous with
Onesimus as God has been with you through His Son Jesus Christ.
The
slave Onesimus had run away from his owner Philemon and in the world
he lived in that meant severe punishment for his disobedience. But
the Apostle Paul was appealing to Philemon and praying that Philemon
would generously offer Onesimus grace and mercy.
People
in our lives, they may not deserve for us to be generous with them
with our love and generous with our forgiveness, but it is exactly
what God expects from us! And it is exactly what they need!
Application
I
will generously dish out love and forgiveness to those in my life.
How about you? Will you be stingy or generous?
Prayer
Heavenly
Father, help me to be generous with all the people in my life today.
Thank You for the reminder today in Philemon. I pray for any one that
may read this blog today. Help them to be filled with Your grace and
help them to be ready to forgive. Help all of us to be generous!
Daily
Bible Reading: Isaiah 6,7; 2 Chronicles 26,27; Philemon
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