Listen

This is my prayer: that your love might become even more and more rich with knowledge and all kinds of insight. I pray this so that you will be able to decide what really matters and so you will be sincere and blameless on the day of Christ. I pray that you will then be filled with the fruit of righteousness, which comes from Jesus Christ, in order to give glory and praise to God.

Philippians 1:9-11

Think

Any good gardener or farmer knows that the conditions in which you plant determine the quality of the harvest. Certain plants can’t survive certain weather, even as other plants won’t take root in certain types of soil. A good farmer needs more than just good intentions to receive a good harvest; they also need knowledge and wisdom.

Interestingly, Paul seems to believe that these two gifts are also what our love needs if it is going to be effective. Rather than simply throwing around indiscriminate love with merely good intentions, Paul prays that our love will become abundant in knowledge and insight. Such a love is effective because it helps us to “decide what really matters.”

Our most faithful expressions of love are also our most discerning acts of love. Love that considers the most helpful words to say to our friend who is hurting, love that leverages our own resources to benefit those in need around us, love that listens carefully to the voices of others to learn what our knowledge is lacking.

Such a love not only fills our own lives but also overflows into a fruitfulness that feeds those around us.

Dave McNeely

Pray

God, I pray that you will make my love more insightful and wiser so that I might be able to “decide what really matters.”

I want to not only love much, but love well.

I pray that you would give me a discerning love that might grow into a multiplying love, overflowing to everyone around me.

Amen.

Go

As your feet walk down the path of peace,

May your heart remain open to receive peace,

And your hands remain open to offer peace.

 

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