>That is a quote from our minister’s excellent sermon yesterday on “Marks of a Growing Faith” based on Philippians 1:8-11. I was delighted to hear that the sermon was the first in a series on Philippians and I was even more delighted since the text contains verses that comprise part of my daily prayers for each of the members of my family:

“And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ — to the glory and praise of God.”

That passage is packed with words and phrases that carry a lot of weight: love, abound, knowledge, depth of insight, discern, best, pure, blameless, day of Christ, filled, fruit of righteousness, through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

It would take too much time and become far too personal for me to unpack all of what those verses mean to me when I pray for my family.

Although I have never found it possible to pinpoint only one or two scripture passages as my favorite since I love so many, those verses are certainly among my favorites.

And Philippians is certainly one of my favorite books of the Bible. Joy permeates it, forming a solid foundation and bubbling to the surface in Paul’s effervescent remarks, such as the fourth verse of the fourth chapter: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, Rejoice.”