Behold, I make all things new!
Philippians 1:3-11
Love Changes Us
I recently had the pleasure of being with my brother and sister at our favorite childhood vacation spot – Rockport, Texas. Our grandparents had a small fishing cottage on the bay. My siblings and I had not had spent time together, just us three, in a long time. We talked about our lives now, our kids, our significant others and our jobs. We talked about our various struggles and accomplishments in our adult lives. It is fascinating to look back on the journey of our lives, recalling what kind of people we were when we were kids playing at the beach and fishing with our family and seeing where we are now.
Paul’s letter begins by telling the Philippians how proud and confident he is because of their faithfulness and how he continues to pray for them. Paul wants their love to continue to overflow, to come to knowledge and full insight.
Love brings knowledge and insight to determine what is best. Throughout our lives, we need to pick love to grow in wisdom. Picking love every day in every situation is incredibly difficult. The more we can pick love, the more knowledge and insight that we can learn, which makes picking love easier. As I talked with my siblings and watched the sunrise and sunset on the bay in Rockport, I realized how much of my own growth I had forgotten about. I saw my brother and sister and could clearly see them as little kids and the wonderful adults they are now.
It is easy to look only at today, which can hinder us from looking at the end goal that God has set for us. God has changed me through Jesus Christ from when I was a boy. I certainly have much to learn about how to give love every day. The end goal is producing the harvest of righteousness through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.
This Advent, we can take time to think about how love has changed us and given us knowledge and insight throughout our journey. We can also accept the love from Jesus Christ today and in the future!
God of the ages, you have been our hope from generation to generation. Teach us to live and love in You. Amen.
David Ingram – Fairbanks Lutheran Church, Fairbanks
3I thank my God every time I remember you, 4constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, 5because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now. 6I 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. 7It 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. 8For God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the compassion of Christ Jesus. 9And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight 10to help you to determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, 11having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.