Philemon 1:4 I thank my God, making mention of you always in my prayers, Prayer is based on a supreme contentedness with Divine gifts and blessings but also on a sublime uncontentedness with human attainments in them. It therefore catches up thankfulness and petition into a happy unity, as the railway train holds its passengers at rest and yet in motion at the same moment. True prayer is free alike from querulous discontent and from cloddish self-content. The very satisfaction of the traveller at the well with the water it affords, bids him draw more largely on its supply for himself and others. And so Paul is thankful for all that God is and does, for all He has and offers, as manifested in the evangelic faith and love of Philemon; but he cannot think of either Philemon or himself resting satisfied where so much more remains to be possessed. To have nothing further to ask and yearn after were to have the mainspring of activity and improvement utterly broken. To pray is therefore a privilege and a relief. To pray for others is especially so to a loving and benevolent heart. We might have been permitted to pray only for ourselves; but amid the separations and scatterings of earth, God has been pleased to put intercession for one another as an instrument of mutual interest and blessing into the hands of all who would promote each other's good. (A. H. Drysdale, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: I thank my God, making mention of thee always in my prayers,WEB: I thank my God always, making mention of you in my prayers, |
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