I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers.
– Philemon 4
I love this language. We see it numerous times in Paul’s letters to churches and individuals, specifically to an individual here, Philemon, who he calls “our beloved fellow worker” from him in Timothy.
Philemon 4 encourages Us to thank God for other people in our lives.
He says, “Philemon, I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers.” And as I read that, even as I say that right now, I’m just thinking of different people that I pray for who I’m so thankful for, and this is the way prayer for others should work, for us to, as we intercede for other people, thank God for other people to thank God for his grace in them. For us, especially as brothers and sisters in Christ, to see each other and pray for each other with a heart of thanksgiving for each other.
Just thinking of different people today that I’ve prayed for, and you can’t see my face, I’m just smiling. I’m thinking about how thankful I am for them. And so I want to lead us to pray accordingly. And, obviously, I don’t know all the people in your life, but let’s just pray and I’ll try to leave some space for the Spirit to lead you in specific ways when it comes to specific people. But oh God, we thank you for people in our lives who love us, who we love, we have the privilege of sharing life with, for people we know really well, for people that we’ve just met here or there, or people from a distance who’ve had an impact on our lives. God, we thank you for the effect of other people, for the effect of your grace in other people on our lives.
Philemon 4 helps us remember those who have led us to God.
God, I am so thankful for all the people that are coming to my mind right now, and I trust other people’s minds. We thank you for the people who pointed us to you, who shared the gospel with us. Thank you for them. God, we thank you for people who have encouraged us when we’ve been at low points. Lord, we thank you for people who care about us. God, we thank you for people who are friends to us, examples to us. Lord, we thank you for the examples in our lives that help point us to you.
God, we thank you for wise people who have taught us. We thank you for loving people who have served us or hosted us or cared for us in different ways. Oh God, thank you for these men and women and kids, for all the faces that are coming to our minds. And God, as we thank you for them, we pray that you would make us those kind of people. Help us to be examples, encouragers. Help us to share the gospel, to point people to Jesus.
God, we want to help lead others to Jesus in ways that lead them to thanksgiving to you. God, we pray. Help us to be bold with the gospel today. Lord, help us to be wise in counsel we give. Help us to love people amidst whatever they’re walking through in their lives today in ways that would lead to thanksgiving to you.
Prayer for the Lunape People
And God, we pray specifically for the Lunape people of Bhutan. No known followers of Jesus and all of them Buddhists, as far as we know. God, we thank you for them. We thank you for your image in them.
We thank you for your beauty in them, for your grace in the Lunape people of Bhutan. And God, we pray for them with thanksgiving in our hearts for them that they might be reached with the gospel, that they might be reached by your grace and your love in Jesus, that they might receive your salvation, God, for disciples we made and churches to be planted among the Lunape people of Bhutan that thanksgiving might rise to you, that praise might rise to you among that people group.
Oh God, teach us to pray with thanksgiving in our hearts for people all around us, according to your Word in Philemon 4. In Jesus’ name, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
