Yesterday I shared a story from my past that made me take a hard look at how I had been praying. The Lord led me to the book of Colossians and there I read what Paul wrote to those believers and how he included them in his prayers. What I read there convicted and humbled me and I realized that I needed to be praying in exactly the same way. Let’s look at those verses from Colossians Chapter 1.
9 For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;
Paul, and those with him, had heard good things about the believers at Colossae; Paul had a fervent love for those men and women. Paul wanted them to know that he and his fellow believers were praying for them without ceasing and that they were on his mind and heart on a daily basis. Paul was consistent in his prayers and, like him, we must be also.
Paul tells them that he is interceding on their behalf that they be filled with the knowledge of the will of God and that they not lack for wisdom and spiritual understanding. In other words, Paul’s greatest desire for his spiritual children was that they know the will of God and that they be able to execute it with wisdom.
The first time I read that it was like a giant light bulb clicked on in my head. The greatest prayer I can pray for another believer is that they be filled with the knowledge of the will of God and that they have the wisdom and understanding to carry it out! Those words were powerful to me then and they are still powerful to me now.
10 that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;
Verse 10 is incredibly encouraging to me. What does a man or woman look like who walks worthy of the Lord and is fruitful in good works while increasing in the knowledge of God? It looks like a man or woman that is blessing everyone they come in contact with and a person that I very much want to be around!
Praying this for someone that you know is putting that person on the fast track to Godliness. Prayer is powerful and this prayer in particular speaks to a life that is owned by God and lived for God. In my mind I picture a walking, talking, heavenly fruit tree that gives blessed shade and the fruit of good works while lifting their branches skyward in constant praise to the Father. Oh that we would pray for more people like this!
11 strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy;
Paul knows that anyone who is living a life so visibly unto God will come under Satanic attack and that Satan’s greatest weapons are his ability to distract, discourage and accuse. Paul’s prayer here is for strengthening and for endurance for the trials that will inevitably come, but the news here is still good. This strengthening comes from God’s glorious power (can you imagine the magnitude of that? I want to see it!) and includes joy.
We can pray that our brothers and sisters be strengthened and that there might be joy in suffering. And the amazing thing to me is that this is a prayer that God loves to answer! God loves to say to His children “This suffering has no power over you, feel my strength and joy and watch as it fills your life”. I want that to be true for everyone that I know and love, don’t you?
12 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.
Paul begins and ends with thanks. As always, his focus was on thanking God for His great love and redemption plan. As we thank God, our focus shifts to Him and away from ourselves and our circumstances. Thankfulness should be our first and last resort because even if we were to lose everything we had on this earth in an instant, we would still be Children of the Most High God who were bought with a price and redeemed forevermore.
Your salvation is assured. Your inheritance is being prepared even now. God wants to lead you home but before we get there we have work to do, and no work for the Kingdom is more important than prayer.
These last 2 days we have focused on prayer for other believers. Prayer is such a big, important subject that it would be impossible to overstate it and there are other types of prayer yet to be examined. We will return to the subject of prayer very soon as we continue our Prayer Closet Warrior Training and I hope that God has blessed you as much as He has blessed me through these scripture verses.
If this has challenged you, affirmed you or helped you I would love to hear from you and what God is doing in your life. Let us always encourage one another!