COLOSSIANS 1 - PART 2

If you’ve been in any kind of church group where prayer requests are taken, you know the kinds of requests that are typical.  

Please pray for my aunt who has been diagnosed with cancer. 

Pray for my son and his wife who are having marital problems. 

Pray for my husband to get a job in his field.

Pray for my relationship with my cousin.

Pray for our safety as we travel.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with asking the Lord for our physical and material needs.  But rarely, if ever, have I been in a meeting where the prayer like the one Paul prays for the Colossians is requested.  His prayer for them is recorded in Colossians, chapter 1, verses 9-12:

Verse 9a: “For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. . .”

How’s that for determination and perseverance borne out of love?   

The Apostle Paul had never been to Colosse.  He had only heard of their faith in the gospel and the love of the Colossians for their fellow believers, but he had never met them.  Nevertheless, since the day he first heard, he had not ceased to pray for them.  So what is it that Paul prays for them?

Verse 9b “. . .asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.”

Paul’s prayer for them was not for their physical or material needs, although they undoubtedly had many.  His prayer was for their spiritual needs – that the Lord would fill them with the knowledge of HIS WILL by granting them spiritual wisdom and spiritual understanding – something only God could do!

Why did he so faithfully pray this for them?

Verse 10a “And we pray this IN ORDER THAT you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way. . . .”

Why did the Colossian believers need spiritual wisdom and understanding?  So that they might know the Lord’s will, so that they might know what living a life worthy of the Lord looked like in the framework of their everyday lives and live it faithfully. 

No matter how long you have been a Christian, you know that it is not easy to live a life worthy of the Lord and please Him in every way.  It was no different for the Colossians.  They too were living in a world hostile to the gospel.  They too lived and worked among people who didn’t know or love Jesus and had the same temptations to do things the world’s way.  They too were struggling to discern truth from the errors that assailed them, not only from unbelievers, but also from those who claimed to be Christians, whose heresies threatened the church.  

The prayer Paul prayed for them was not only needed for them, it’s needed for US!  The challenges we face today as believers in Jesus might seem more complex than the ones in Colosse (After all, they didn’t have the internet to more seriously muddy the waters!), and maybe they are, which puts us in the place of needing, just as desperately as they did, spiritual wisdom and understanding to know God’s will today too and continue to live lives worthy of the Lord.

But Paul’s prayer didn’t stop there.

Verse 10:b “bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might SO THAT you might have great endurance and patience. . . “

What does this life worthy of the Lord and pleasing to Him look like?  

It is a life of fruit bearing in every good work.  This could mean the "fruit" of Christlike character in our lives as we go about our daily work. Or the "fruit" of telling others about Jesus.

A life of continual growth in the knowledge of who God is.  God gave us the Bible in order that we might know Him, so it stands to reason, growth in that knowledge comes from becoming well acquainted with God's Word. 

It is a life, lived so closely in communion with Jesus, that the power of the Holy Spirit is continually strengthening me from within, bestowing supernatural endurance and patience for resisting life’s temptations in the dailys, as I endeavor to live a life that pleases God.

There is nothing wrong with praying for the physical and material needs of others, but maybe we need to take those prayers a step further, taking into account the spiritual dynamics of what we hope to see the Lord do in answer to our prayers.  Here are some examples:

Please pray for my aunt who has been diagnosed with cancer  Pray that in the midst of this health crisis she might seek You, Jesus, for the Bible says that those who seek You surely find You.

Pray for my son and his wife who are having marital problems.  Teach each of them to submit their lives to You first Lord, as You submitted Your life into the hands of the Father.  For submitting themselves to You is the first step in being able to submit to one another.

Pray for my husband to get a job in his field.  While my husband waits on You, Lord, teach him that You can be trusted to provide for our needs in the meantime for you have promised never to leave or forsake us.  Grow his relationship with You while he waits.

Pray for my relationship with my cousin.  Do such a work of grace in our hearts Lord, that we will each be ready to humble ourselves and seek the other’s forgiveness.

Pray for our safety for our travel.  Help us to be aware wherever we go that we are your ambassadors, Jesus.  Help us to honor you and bless others, every time we stop for gas, engage others in conversation in hotels and restaurants, and remind us give you thanks at the end of our journey.

What a wonderful model for prayer Paul has given us.  What might the Lord do in the lives of our children, our neighbors, our church, if we were to not stop praying Paul’s prayer for them?  Why don’t we try it and see?

More tomorrow. . . .