Silas
Beloved of All
Thank you for sharing this prayer so richly grounded in Scripture. Your desire is exactly what God delights to answer, to know His love more deeply and to walk in wisdom that chooses what is best.
The Father has already shown the greatness of His love in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us, so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. That love has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, and we are saved not only by His death but by His life. It is right to ask for a fresh sense of that love again, not because it has faded from His side, but because we need our hearts renewed to receive it with joy.
You pray that love would abound with knowledge and discernment, and that is the heart of what the Scriptures call wisdom. Knowledge gives us facts, but wisdom shows us what to do with what we know. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, the starting place from which true understanding grows. When Solomon asked not for riches or honor but for wisdom to walk rightly before God and to lead well, God was pleased and gave him wisdom, and with it also added what he had not asked for. God still loves to give in that way. If anyone lacks wisdom, He gives generously to those who ask.
Wisdom is the principal thing, more valuable than rubies or riches, and nothing we desire compares with it. Its ways are pleasant and its paths are peace. In one hand it holds length of days, in the other riches and honor in the true sense, a life kept and preserved because we love wisdom and do not forsake her counsel. Wisdom cries out in the open places to the simple and to those without understanding, calling us to turn at her reproof, to incline the ear and apply the heart, so that she may pour out her spirit and make her words known to us. In Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, so to pursue wisdom is to pursue Him.
That is why your prayer from Philippians and Colossians is so fitting. That love would abound in full knowledge and careful discernment to approve the things that are excellent, that are different and higher than the ways of this world. This is how we are transformed by the renewing of the mind to test and prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. It leads to sincerity without mixture, being filled with the fruit of righteousness through Jesus Christ to the glory of the Father, walking in a manner worthy of the Lord, pleasing Him in every way, bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the deeper knowledge of God, strengthened with all power according to His glorious might for steadfast endurance, and joyfully giving thanks that He has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.
You also pray rightly to pursue love and to earnestly desire spiritual gifts, especially for the building up of the church. Love is the greater way, and gifts find their proper use when love leads. True wisdom from above bears this mark. The wisdom of this world leads to envy and strife and boasting, and it comes to nothing, for in its wisdom the world did not know God. But the wisdom from above is pure and peaceable. It leads to purity rather than sensuality, to peace rather than division, to sowing in peace that we may reap righteousness. It is not taught in the words of human wisdom but taught by the Holy Spirit, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
And you ask to stand fully assured in all the will of God, to be led by the Spirit as children of God, to hear the voice of Jesus our Shepherd and follow Him in paths of righteousness and justice. God promises that wisdom is a defense and gives life to those who have it. He ponders all our ways, and He will keep those who trust Him from the cords of sin that entangle the wicked. He commands His angels to serve those who will inherit salvation, He guards us and delivers us from evil, and He keeps us from being deceived when many claim to know God but deny Him by their lives or hold a form of godliness without its power. The peace of God, which passes all understanding, will guard hearts and minds in Christ Jesus as we bring our requests to Him with thanksgiving.
May the Lord answer this prayer in your life. May He fill you with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, cause your love to overflow in knowledge and discernment, grant you practical wisdom for each decision, make you sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit, and keep your ear tuned to the Shepherds voice so you follow Him and not another. May He keep you from temptation and from the evil one, establish you in purity and peace, and cause you to bear much fruit to His praise, being conformed more and more to His image as a child of the Most High. We ask this in the name of Jesus, in whom every promise is yes and amen.
The Father has already shown the greatness of His love in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us, so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. That love has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, and we are saved not only by His death but by His life. It is right to ask for a fresh sense of that love again, not because it has faded from His side, but because we need our hearts renewed to receive it with joy.
You pray that love would abound with knowledge and discernment, and that is the heart of what the Scriptures call wisdom. Knowledge gives us facts, but wisdom shows us what to do with what we know. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, the starting place from which true understanding grows. When Solomon asked not for riches or honor but for wisdom to walk rightly before God and to lead well, God was pleased and gave him wisdom, and with it also added what he had not asked for. God still loves to give in that way. If anyone lacks wisdom, He gives generously to those who ask.
Wisdom is the principal thing, more valuable than rubies or riches, and nothing we desire compares with it. Its ways are pleasant and its paths are peace. In one hand it holds length of days, in the other riches and honor in the true sense, a life kept and preserved because we love wisdom and do not forsake her counsel. Wisdom cries out in the open places to the simple and to those without understanding, calling us to turn at her reproof, to incline the ear and apply the heart, so that she may pour out her spirit and make her words known to us. In Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, so to pursue wisdom is to pursue Him.
That is why your prayer from Philippians and Colossians is so fitting. That love would abound in full knowledge and careful discernment to approve the things that are excellent, that are different and higher than the ways of this world. This is how we are transformed by the renewing of the mind to test and prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. It leads to sincerity without mixture, being filled with the fruit of righteousness through Jesus Christ to the glory of the Father, walking in a manner worthy of the Lord, pleasing Him in every way, bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the deeper knowledge of God, strengthened with all power according to His glorious might for steadfast endurance, and joyfully giving thanks that He has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.
You also pray rightly to pursue love and to earnestly desire spiritual gifts, especially for the building up of the church. Love is the greater way, and gifts find their proper use when love leads. True wisdom from above bears this mark. The wisdom of this world leads to envy and strife and boasting, and it comes to nothing, for in its wisdom the world did not know God. But the wisdom from above is pure and peaceable. It leads to purity rather than sensuality, to peace rather than division, to sowing in peace that we may reap righteousness. It is not taught in the words of human wisdom but taught by the Holy Spirit, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
And you ask to stand fully assured in all the will of God, to be led by the Spirit as children of God, to hear the voice of Jesus our Shepherd and follow Him in paths of righteousness and justice. God promises that wisdom is a defense and gives life to those who have it. He ponders all our ways, and He will keep those who trust Him from the cords of sin that entangle the wicked. He commands His angels to serve those who will inherit salvation, He guards us and delivers us from evil, and He keeps us from being deceived when many claim to know God but deny Him by their lives or hold a form of godliness without its power. The peace of God, which passes all understanding, will guard hearts and minds in Christ Jesus as we bring our requests to Him with thanksgiving.
May the Lord answer this prayer in your life. May He fill you with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, cause your love to overflow in knowledge and discernment, grant you practical wisdom for each decision, make you sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit, and keep your ear tuned to the Shepherds voice so you follow Him and not another. May He keep you from temptation and from the evil one, establish you in purity and peace, and cause you to bear much fruit to His praise, being conformed more and more to His image as a child of the Most High. We ask this in the name of Jesus, in whom every promise is yes and amen.
