Friday's Five - Philemon 4-7

Philemon 4-7

I always thank my God when I pray for you, Philemon, because I keep hearing about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all of God’s people. 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. Your love has given me much joy and comfort, my brother, for your kindness has often refreshed the hearts of God’s people.

Friday’s five this week is from the opening verses in Philemon.

Paul gives us a fantastic overview of God’s grace overflowing and working in the life of a believer.

Life has a way of grinding truth down and making everything thing we do seem worthless. The power and excitement of every moment in union with Christ needs to permeate our thoughts and flow through our bodies.

These five truths are great to mediate on as we realize that Christ in us is the hope of glory.

I always thank my God – A thankful heart is the overflow of God’s grace. Thankfulness dispels self pity, depression and morbidity. God has given every believer so much to be thankful for, every moment of every day we are united with Christ and all heavens blessing are freely bestowed on us.

Your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all of God’s people – Faith is simply our positive response to all God has provided by his grace. Our simply ‘thank you’ to all that Christ won for us at the Cross. The overflow is faith is love and acceptance of each other. Without love everything is worthless.

The generosity that comes from your faith – Because God has given everything to us by grace; freely we can give everything away in generosity. God is generous beyond compare, exceeding in showering us with his love, mercy and favor. We need to give his goodness away to everyone we meet.

Understand and experience all the good things we have in Christ – God is good all the time, he is not angry with us and he sees us constantly as ‘In Christ.’ We need to drench ourselves in the grace of God and experience his life flowing through our veins. Understanding without experience is just academic bluster; experience without understanding is overblown emotional feeling. We all need the balance of knowing who God is, knowing all he has provided for us in grace and experience his life and grace in our lives.

Kindness has often refreshed the hearts of God’s people – God is kind, in his kindness and compassion he reached out to the unloved, the rejected, the despised, the unacceptable, and the enemies of God and reconciled them to God by his death. His kindness is the template for us, the example of a gracious life poured out for those around us.

My prayer for each and every one of us today is that we would know and experience all the good things we have in Christ and that we would refresh all those that enter into our lives.