Prayers for Love, Knowledge and Discernment

And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ; having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. Philippians 1:9-11

Prayer is a key in Christian life and in character development. Here Paul is encouraging the people at Philippi by telling them that he is praying for them to have knowledge and discernment or insight so that they can be blameless—sinless. They were already looking forward to Christ’s return—just as we are now. That was 2000 years ago…will God keep us waiting longer before He sends His Son back to earth again? Only He knows. Even with wisdom, knowledge and discernment, we don’t know. It is better to live as “blameless” as possible, day by day than to try to guess the time that Jesus will return and live however until then. As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord, from Joshua 24:15. That’s the way I feel about life now. With discernment, as well as hopefully wisdom, we will live the way God wants us to live, living our faith and sharing with others. I pray that this will be your goal, too.

Training Tip – How is it going with teaching your children to pray? Have they memorized the great model prayer: the Lord’s Prayer? Have you taught them that they need to pray from their heart? Use the ACTS acrostic:

A – Adoration – Praise God for who He is.

C – Confession – It is necessary to humble ourselves and admit our mistakes, our errors in life.

T – Thanksgiving – Give God the thanks that He is due—not just at Thanksgiving time.

S – Supplication – With all the other things out of the way—go ahead and ask for whatever is on your heart---salvation for others, needs and wants for yourself and others.

These basic parts of prayer are simple enough that even a four year old can talk to God using those pointers. If you are having problems with prayer, ask God for wisdom in that area. See James 1:5… But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. Don’t doubt, just ask. 

Lord, may Your love grow more and more giving my family and me real knowledge and discernment, so that we may be sincere and blameless until the day of Your return.

All scripture quoted from the New American Standard Bible (NASB) unless otherwise noted.

© 2013 by Mickey M. Hunacek. All rights reserved.