Philippian Studies: Lessons in Faith and Love from St. Paul's Epistle to the PhilippiansMoule, H. C. G. (Handley Carr Glyn)
Religion
Philippian Studies: Lessons in Faith and Love from St. Paul's Epistle to the Philippians
Moule, H. C. G. (Handley Carr Glyn)
Bible. Philippians -- Commentaries
"In the calm of sweet communion
Let thy daily work be done;
In the peace of soul-outpouring
Care be banish'd, patience won." [10]
The sweet hymn leads us straight to the next point. The normal
Christian life, according to this paragraph, is a life of perpetual,
habitual, converse with God, converse about everything. And such
converse has everything to do with the unanxious life. The man who
would be unanxious is to cultivate the practice of reverent,
worshipping (_proseuche_), thankful, _detailed prayer_; so shall he
enter into peace. Here is a large subject; it is inexhaustible; from
every aspect prayer is wonderful; and there are many kinds and types of
prayer, as regards the act and exercise of it. But the all-important
thing to remember here is that we are called _to pray_ as the great
means to a divine unanxious peace; and that we are called to pray in
the sense of "making our requests known _in everything_." Shall we, in
the grace of God, set ourselves to do it? Shall we remember the
presence of the Hearer, and "practise the Presence"? Shall we act upon
it? More, and more, and always more, shall we really "_in everything_"
turn to Him, and tell Him? Thought is good, but prayer is better; or
rather, thought in the form of prayer is, in ten thousand cases, the
best thought. Let us make it a rule, God helping, "in everything"
which calls for pause, for consideration, for judgment, to pray first
and then to think. Innumerable futile thoughts will thus be saved,
thoughts made fruitless by a hurry of spirit, or a heat, or a hardness,
which puts all our view out of order. We shall indeed need to take
pains. For while nothing is simpler in idea than the act of speaking
to the unseen Friend, nothing is more easy, alas, to let slip in
practice. But the pains will be infinitely worth the while; it will be
all applied at the right point. Wonderful result, guaranteed here by
the Hearer of prayer; His "peace shall safeguard our hearts and our
thoughts, in Christ Jesus," in the living Sanctuary of security and
strength. There all our powers shall be active, yet at rest; dealing
with a thousand things, yet always conditioned by Him who is "the One
Thing Needful." Unity will lie at the heart of multiplicity; Christ
will rule life from the centre.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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