"We have a hard time taking our eyes off the daily troubles that confront us."

Chuck Huckaby, pastor of St. Andrew's Church in Lawrenceburg, TN, joined the Pastor's Circle to talk about prayer. Specifically, how Paul prayed in Philippians 1.
 
You've been preaching about Paul and Prayer. Tell us about that.

I've been preaching through Philippians 1:9-11.

I thought...how do I pray for people, how do I pray for myself? I compared that to Philippians 1:9-11 and found that I didn't do too well.

Paul prays for them for something much more profound. That their love may abound...and be pure and blameless in the day of Christ.

Why is it we get so caught up with prayer requests for people's physical ailments?

I think it says that we can't break through the surface.

We have a hard time taking our eyes off the daily troubles that confront us.

Our eyes are focused on the plane of this world. And we need to  be focused  on a plane where we realize Jesus is the risen Lord.

These prayers, however right they are in their own place, are not sufficient.

I'd love to know, from your perspective, what this tells us about Paul.

I think what it tells us about Paul is even as he's writing from some level of confinement. Even as he has many worries about many churches and individual problems, that he is able to focus on the main thing, which is that Christ is raised and the result is that His people will fulfill the law of God.

Describe the meaning of hesed and what this can mean in this particular  passage.

We look at the word hesed - God's covenant faithfulness - in the Old Testament....that's what hangs on despite his people in the Old Testament.

This covenant faithfulness, Paul and the New Testament writers have found a word to describe this world. It's agape love.

The love that motivates the Son of God to come to our squalor, filth, and sin.

The covenant faithfulness of God in the Old Testament finds its fulfillment...in the coming of Christ.

You've just said that this is a love that's sacrificial. Do you think most people read through this prayer, and that's what they're thinking about love?

I think it's something we need to constantly reflect on.

Do most people understand it? Well, you and I don't understand it completely.

Hesed love has been defined as an obstinate love. I'm quite sure it's a love that most of us don't know...

And I think that's why it's important to link our idea of love to Christ.

Pure and blameless - is that even possible today?

It's possible on two levels.

There's a purity and blamelessness that we received on behalf of Christ's atonement for us. His atoning sacrifice covers all our sins.

We are enabled to begin a life of purity and blamelessness.

Both flow from entrusting ourselves to the one who is pure and blameless.