Paul commends the church or churches to whom he writes as having the characteristics of true Church. They demonstrated loyalty to Jesus and love to all people. Throughout history there have been those whose loyalty to God has caused them to do horrendous acts supposedly in His Name, Saul before he became Paul, and the Pharisees are two examples. During lockdown, our Zoom services have been excellent for encouraging all of us involved in the fellowship at Bearfield to continue to worship God together, but we have missed the physical meeting-the human, reaching out to others to comfort and be comforted. True love for Christ bolsters our love for others, remember the fruits of the Spirit which Paul listed in Galatians 5 v 22,23? So, this is Paul's prayer for his readers: 1. He prays for the Spirit of wisdom, that wisdom which comes from the deep things of God. For us, this is the wisdom which encourages us to take a step back from the hurly burly of the day and to see what God is doing, where He is guiding. Plato wrote, 'The unexamined life is the life not worth living'. 2. Paul prays for a fuller revelation of God and a fuller knowledge of God. The Christian life does not sit still! Yes, there must be times of reflection and stillness, but we are to be moving forward! Just like the Doctor who must continue to study all his life or the athlete who must carry on training, the Christian is committed to getting to know God better every day. 3. He prays for hope. We are living in an age of despair and this angst has infected many Christians too. We however have a living hope-that is based on things in progress and a living Lord Jesus, not on ancient tradition-and we are called to encourage hope to spread in the hearts of those around us. 4. Paul prays for a new realisation of the power of God. The resurrection of Christ proved once and for all that God's purpose cannot be stopped by the actions of mankind. Read through these verses again and remind yourself that, whatever your situation, Almighty God, Creator of all things, Sustainer of all that you can see and all that you cannot see is by your side.
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See AllThe reader is reminded afresh in these few verses that Paul cared nothing about himself or his reputation, but wholly sought God's glory and the growth of His Kingdom. He also had a great heart of lov
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Paul again has to resort to irony in his exasperation at the accusations of some of the Corinthian believers. It is as if they were searching minutely for anything they could hold up against him and
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As so often happens, when someone is pushed back by unfair questions and accusations, their response is to tell their story: they may come out with reasons as to how things are or their life story o
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