COLOSSIANS 1- PART 4

One of the biggest blessings for me of the years I spent in the leadership of Bible Study Fellowship was the time spent in prayer at the leader’s meeting.  I can remember my very first one when, with each woman on her knees, we began to pray together.  Well, they began to pray, I was dumbstruck just listening to the content of their prayers and the deeply personal way these leaders spoke to the Lord.  I thought I knew how to pray, but listening to those women, I realized that I knew nothing.

Bible Study Fellowship back then, and probably still today, saw itself not just as a place for women (there are men’s classes too) to study the Bible, but also as a training center for leaders.  Training of leaders included learning to pray.  It was there that I learned the difference between praising the Lord and thanking Him.  

Do you know the difference?  Thanksgiving is expressing gratitude to God for what He DOES.  Such as, "Thank you, Lord, for this food.  Thank you for answering my prayers for my son's health."

Praise on the other hand, is all about WHO GOD IS.  Praise is assigning worthship to God for Himself, in all the aspects of His person and work.  

 In those BSF leader’s meetings we always began with praise.  We were even trained, when praising God, to not use the word I, as in, “I praise you for. . .”, but to say instead, “Lord YOU ARE. . . .”.   

The Apostle Paul gives us a beautiful expression of praise as he draws the attention of the Colossian believers (and US!) to the supremacy of Jesus Christ in verses 15-20 of the first chapter of Colossians.  In speaking of Jesus, Paul says he is:

“The image of the invisible God”

The firstborn over all creation

For by him all things were created

Things in heaven and on earth

Visible and invisible

Whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities

All things were created by him and for him

He is before all things

And in him all things hold together.

And he is the head of the body, the church

He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead

SO THAT in everything he might have the supremacy

For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him

And through him to reconcile to himself all things

Whether things on earth or things in heaven,

By making peace through his blood shed on the cross.”

What does it mean to have supremacy?  Webster’s defines supremacy this way:

“the state or condition of being superior to all others in authority, power or status.”

Synonyms include: predominance, dominion, authority, master, control, rule and sovereignty.

As the One who is sovereign ruler over all things, the very image of God the Father, Jesus is worthy of our worship and praise.  

He is creator and sustainer of all things, for they were made by Him and for Him and He holds them all together.

He’s the head of His body, the church.

He’s the firstborn from among the dead, first to be resurrected.

It has been my habit when reading passages of Scripture to note in the margin the character qualities and names for God I see in a passage so that I can use them to praise the Lord.  In this passage, I see Him revealed as: 

the Image of the Father

Inheritor of all things

Creator

Sustainer

Head of His body, the church

the Beginning

the Firstborn from among the dead

Sovereign

Fullness of the Father in bodily form

Reconciler between God and man

Peace Maker.

My prayers so often include just thanksgiving and requests for God’s intervention in my life and the lives of others.  Praise reminds me of the greatness of the One to Whom I address myself.  Praise reminds me that God is so much bigger, so much greater than my circumstances.  Praise to Jesus for who He is is where I need to begin my times of prayer, because He is worthy of my praise first and foremost.