1:3 I thank my God in all my remembrance of you

We need to thank God for people more, instead of merely interceding for them. When we merely intercede, prayer can become very mechanical. When we delight in the things God has given us (including our brothers in sisters in Christ) our prayers become more personal.
It is easy to see the importance of intercession. People have needs, we pray to God to meet them. Hopefully the practical benefit is that they get their needs met. But what is the value of thanking God for the people we know and love? What practical benefit can be derived from it? This is why I (for one) have not made it a habit to thank God for those whom I love. But when we think about it, it isn’t hard at all to see the value in this. First of all, it sweetens our heart toward God. As sinful human beings we have an irrational hardness of heart toward God. His gracious blessings get taken for granted; we take His grace as a given and notice only what we don’t have. So, it is necessary for us to work against this negative impulse. We need to have ammunition to fight against our complaining natures. We need to fight to remember how good God has been to us. And one of the ways to do this is to remember how God has blessed us by putting our beloved ones in our lives. There is no greater need we have than to worship and adore our great God. The blessing that others have been to us can become fuel for this fire, which is ever in need of fuel, since our hearts are so naturally cold.
Secondly, giving thanks to God for others equips us to encourage them and love them. We see this right here in v.3. Paul is not praying here in thanks to God for the Philippians. He is rather telling them that he does thank God for them in his prayers. Right here he is loving them with his words; he is honoring them by informing them of how he gives thanks to God for them every time he thinks of them. The times of actually thanking God for them have yielded the fruit of this encouragement he brings to them. I don’t mean that we ought to give thanks for people just so we can tell them that we do. Rather, I mean that giving thanks for people reminds us of how we have been blessed by others and stirs up in us appreciation for them, making it much more likely that we will express that appreciation to them in some meaningful way.
Thirdly, there is no more Christian way of praising another person than to say to them that we give thanks to God for them. This gives praise where it is due. It acknowledges all that the person himself means to us, and yet it also remembers that "all good gifts around us are sent from heaven above."

Lord, thank You for my spouse. Thank You for my children. Thank You for my parents. Thank You for my friends in Christ. Thank You for the people in my church who love You. Thank You for all the people who have helped me in my life. Thank You for the people who have taught me Your word. Thank You for the people who have prayed for me. Thank You for the people who have encouraged me in my faith. Thank You for the people who have inspired me by their example. Thank You for the people who have loved me enough to confront me about my sin. You have SO blessed me through others! Forgive me for how little I thank You for them. Thank You for how You have persisted in your generosity in spite of the fact that I don’t even thank You for most of the gifts You send. Teach me, O Lord, to live a life of thankfulness. Make me the most thankful person in the world! May my memory, along with every other function of my being, be used to fuel a life of worship and adoration. You are certainly worthy of that!