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I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now. I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to think this way about all of you because you hold me in your heart, for all of you share in God’s grace with me, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the compassion of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best, so that on the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God. (Philippians 1: 3-11) Reflection Paul prayed with joy and thankfulness for his friends in Christ. What would it be like to pray as you remembered people in your life? Every person every time you remember them. With joy and thankfulness. Try it. A text message comes in. Pray with joy in thankfulness for that person before reading it. A post pops up on a feed. Pray with joy and thankfulness for the person who posted. You take the car for an oil change. Pray with joy and thankfulness for the mechanic who takes care of the car that gets you where you need to go. You pass someone on the sidewalk and a friendly greeting and smile is shared. Pray with joy and thankfulness for community. Paul’s message here ends with his hope that (their) love may overflow more and more. I would imagine with all that praying, Paul’s love was overflowing also. I believe our love would overflow more and more, too. --Ruth Gates Prayer Dear God, with joy we thank you for the people in our lives. Help us to all grow in the knowledge of your grace. May our love overflow more and more. Amen. Our devotions are based on this Sunday’s Revised Common Lectionary (RCL). The RCL is a three-year cycle of readings telling the story of our Christian faith and corresponding to the season church calendar. On any given Sunday, we are hearing and praying and examining the same Scripture with millions of Christians around the world. In our current Year C, the Old Testament readings progress through the Prophets and have the theme of the day that it is connected to the Gospel reading. The Psalm, a song the congregation sings in response to the Old Testament reading, most often corresponds to the theme of the Hebrew Lessons and/or that of the Gospel Lesson. The lesson from the Epistles or from Acts typifies the church’s focus on the meaning of Christ for today. The Gospel lesson is connected to the season of the Church Year. This year, our gospel readings are from Luke, who writes that Jesus is the universal Savior and the perfect Son of Man. In the current season of Advent, we long for Christ’s coming: Christ coming as a baby; Christ coming again; Christ in our lives today.
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