New Understanding From An Old Verse

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 for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.
Phillipians 1:9-11

This has been one of my favorite verses since college.  I memorized it then and have referred back to it many times.  

This morning I am alone at home still recovering from the Bubonic Plague or something similar and God led me to this verse again and then I looked it up in The Message.  I love how God can take a verse you know and 14 years later make it brand new.  The Message says...

So this is my prayer: that your love will flourish and that you will not only love much but well. Learn to love appropriately. You need to use your head and test your feelings so that your love is sincere and intelligent, not sentimental gush. Live a lover’s life, circumspect and exemplary, a life Jesus will be proud of: bountiful in fruits from the soul, making Jesus Christ attractive to all, getting everyone involved in the glory and praise of God.

Beautiful.  This is my life prayer.  I pray that I can learn to love in this way.  I have been able to watch my husband love a neighbor this way this week.  Stephen was discerning, bore fruit, made Jesus attractive and glorified as he loved our neighbor.  He didn't just provide what the neighbor thought he needed but took two nights to disciple him in life and the Lord.  In the end Stephen did meet the neighbor's physical needs but also his spiritual needs and practical needs as well.  It is an ongoing relationship.  God used that experience to show me what the love He is talking about looks like.  

My prayer for 2014 and on is that I will learn to have a love appropriately with a discerning heart (that is not always how we think it should look), that I will bear bountiful fruits from the SOUL, make Jesus attractive to all, and get everyone involved in the glory and praise of God.