Christian Devotional – May 20, 2025

A Prayer for You, Day 10

A Prayer to rejoice in suffering. Read Philippians chapter 2, focusing on verses 16-18.

Paul is in prison. As we saw in the verses from earlier in this chapter, Paul is reminding the people they need to have the same attitude and mindset of Christ. Paul reminds them that they should not be complaining or grumbling, which is a good reminder considering he’s in prison and has every right to grumble and complain.

Paul goes on to tell them that they should rejoice, even if terrible things happened to him. Look at versus 16 and 17 that lead up to this. Paul is letting them know, he understands completely what may result from his imprisonment with the Roman Empire. He is not ignorant of the fact that death is very likely and a torturous death at that. Paul’s prayer for himself is that he would rejoice during these circumstances. And Paul’s prayer for the people of Philippi is that they would rejoice during those terrible times.

In difficult circumstances, this type of praise seems hard for us to understand. We are generally so focused on self, satisfaction, and comfort that the idea of pain, suffering, and difficulty is completely unwanted. The idea of not complaining during those circumstances is hard enough. But to take it one step further, and explain that we should rejoice, is almost unfathomable.

God is worthy of everything. God working in us is the only reason that we have anything when we commit our lives to him. We are committing to following him, no matter what. Sometimes we experience the blessings here on earth. And sometimes we won’t experience the blessings until heaven. But either way, we are to rejoice in all that God is doing in our lives because we want to see God move.

Are we rejoicing through the challenges and the difficulty today? Do we recognize his hand in our situations? I know that he is going to bring us through, for his glory.

Video devotional can be found here: https://youtu.be/XRqbLMDGLaQ