PHILIPPIANS 1:3-6

3 I thank my God every time I remember you. 4 In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Verse 3 Just a short phrase – but pretty challenging! What do we think of when some Christian’s face comes to mind? The thought of some people might make us instinctively frustrated, depressed, angry, bitter or even lustful. Paul’s immediate instinct was to thank God. He could see beyond the blemishes to what God saw in them. To treat other people as a gift we can be grateful for – that’s a tremendous way of looking at life. It helps us psychologically by making us more positive. And it helps them, because it makes us more eager to pray for them.

Verse 4 Thinking about people thankfully helps us to pray about them with joy. Often when we pray for people, we rush into telling God all about the problems they have, and the things we wish he would change. Paul takes time first just to enjoy the thought of all that God has done already, and how much these people mean to him. Maybe that’s one reason we don’t pray more: because intercessory prayer tends to be a process of bringing up before our minds a series of difficulties, pressures and imperfections. If we make space for mental enjoyment of the good things about the people and situations we call to mind – won’t prayer be a lot more rewarding?

Also, notice how Paul keeps on stressing his theme of equality: all my prayers, all of you, always. No exceptions. There may be some of God’s people whom I warm to, more than others – but I need to thank God for them all!

Verse 5 Paul had done a lot for the Philippians. He was the one who had brought Lydia to faith, who had performed miracles and taught the gospel, who had gone to prison for them. Yet he claims that the church members were “partners in the gospel” right from the start. It takes more than one great man, however multi-talented, to bring a person to Christ.

This phrase raises two important issues. First, however insignificant we think we are, we’re part of God’s strategy, just as much as Billy Graham or Luis Palau.

If God has given some Christians greater evangelistic gifts than to us, it’s not because he likes them better or attaches more importance to them. We all count – and sometimes it’s the little people who do the really big jobs. Behind the ministry of George Verwer, world missions leader and founder of Operation Mobilization, stands a little old lady who prayed for pupils at his high school. Behind Paul stands the almost forgotten Ananias, who probably never did anything notable again.

Second, if we are leaders, it’s good to remember that others can do things we can’t. And we need the others. Often the voice of God in a perplexing situation is detected by a quiet, unassuming Christian when all the big shots are confused. God has made no mistakes in his distribution of spiritual gifts, and if we start acting as if we can do it all ourselves, we’re heading for disaster.

Verse 6 Despite all that was wrong with the church in Philippi, Paul was convinced that God wouldn’t give up on them. God is not the author of confusion, and his Word does not return to him void. What he starts, he finishes. And so if we know that God has begun to do something in us, we can be sure that he isn’t going to stop. Sometimes, when spiritual growth seems slow or nonexistent, we need to remember that. Just because God seems inactive, it doesn’t mean he’s doing nothing. Indeed, at the very time when he seems to be doing least, he may be bringing about the most significant changes of all.

I sometimes run Lavasoft AdAware on my computer to clear out unwanted malware, bugs, and spy programs which would otherwise clog it up. I have a lot of files on my computer, and so it can take the program a fair while to clean up my act. Sometimes it seems to have slowed down and stalled… but I’ve learned through experience that this isn’t the case. Often, when it sems to be doing nothing, it’s actually wrestling with a particularly knotty part of my Registry, buried so deep within the system’s inner workings that for a while I can’t detect anything going on. But after a few minutes it will finish the job triumphantly, and then my computer will be faster and fitter than before.

In the same way, sometimes God’s deepest work within us is his quietest and least spectacular. But the changes he brings make all the difference.