All The Same

Thankfully, we don’t have to live in such blandness

Philippians 1:1-11

Reference: In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy (Philippians 1:4 NIV)

Explore: Imagine if the rainbow was just one colour arched across the sky. It would still look nice, but nowhere near as cool.

Imagine if there was just one note in music. The Gregorian Monks would still have their song repertoire, however, music as we know it would be drastically changed.

Application: Thankfully, we don’t have to live in such blandness but are blessed with incredible diversity. We are appreciative of this most of the time, until it comes to people.

We all have people in our lives who do things a little differently. They may be in your work place, in your church, or even in your family.

To be honest, there are times when I’d rather be on my own than around some people, but this is a bad attitude to harbour.

When the writer of Philippians was writing to the church, he prayed for joy for ALL of them. I’m sure there were some present who had opposing ideas or ways of doing things and who maybe got under his skin. But he still prayed for joy for all of them.

There are times when I get so intolerant that I think it would be easier for me to do things on my own. But when that’s the case, I can only create a rainbow with one colour or a song with one note.

When we start to appreciate each other’s diversity then we can pray with joy, even for those so different to ourselves.

Prayer: Lord, when we clash with someone we need to realise that they were still made from Your creativity. Help us to learn to love diversity rather than to control conformity. Amen.

Think of someone who you don’t always get along with. Pray for them with joy. 

argue, different, diversity, joy, Philippians, prayer