WEDNESDAY December 20th
Today I will highlight some verses from Philippians and Colossians, again it is difficult to choose which ones but here we go, for me the first most obvious is from Philippians 2:9-11 ‘Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.’ Another reminder for us this Christmas time, that the One who humbled himself and came as a baby in the manger in Bethlehem has been highly exalted because of his obedience to the will of his Father.
Next we will go to Philippians 4:4-7 ‘Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.’
From Colossians, chapter 1, Paul’s prayer which is a prayer that we can also pray for one another, ‘And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins’, verses 9-14.
And then I must add in from Colossians 3:16-17 ‘Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.’ I add this for as we have been quoting so many verses of Scripture over the last few devotions, we need that the word of Christ will dwell in us richly, that is we need to desire that as we read it, that it will do something powerful within us. After all as the Hebrew writer reminds us it is a living and a powerful word.