Reading: Colossians 1
I love this prayer that Paul prays at the beginning of this letter. Listen to these words and I would encourage you to meditate on them. They are for you as much as they were for the early church. We need to hear this prayer for ourselves today.
‘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; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, ‘in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.’
Colossians 1:9-14
Let’s look at this to see specifically what Paul is asking for.
- Paul is praying that not only will we know His will, but in knowing His will, we will have wisdom and spiritual understanding. To me this is the beginning of us truly having a relationship with God, our Father. He speaks promises throughout His word, but we must seek them out. In Proverbs 8:11 “wisdom is better than rubies.” Proverbs 10:13 proclaims, “wisdom is found on the lips of him who has understanding.” Wow, God wants us to know his will for our lives. He wants us to have wisdom and understanding, through Him and not through man. We have His word and we have the gift of the Holy Spirit. With these both we can know His will and have all that He wants us to have.
- Next is that we would walk worthy of the Lord. How do we walk worthy? Paul goes on to explain how; by being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. Our actions being representative of God working in our life. When we do good, His light shines. In addition, is this importance of increasing in the knowledge of God. This is a lifelong journey and we can never fully have all knowledge of God. We are continually growing in this knowledge by having that relationship with him. Similar to a spouse, it will take a lifetime to truly know our love. There are depths to understanding and having revelation.
- In addition, we are to be “strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy.” This I believe is telling us what to do when faced with persecution. We will all face persecution in one way or another. However, we are called to be strong with patience and longsuffering. Paul knew exactly what he was writing because he had suffered much persecution. Paul would gladly suffer persecution knowing that it was for the spreading of the gospel.
- Finally, we are to give thanks to our Father, who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints. Because of our faith in Jesus we are now qualified. Qualified in what you may wonder? We are qualified to partake in the inheritance that Jesus paid to give us. We are no longer of this world. The inheritance can be discovered as you read what Jesus came to accomplish.
I hope you can come to pray this prayer over yourself. Let the words of Paul give your spirit a boost to know that God is for you! Jesus sent His son so that you could have understanding in mysteries that even Abraham did not understand. We now can have wisdom and understand of all things. Praise God this is such good news. We should be sharing this good news with others and by it we will be fruitful. We should also be aware that not all will come to believe, and some will mock us or persecute the very core of who we have become. With the assistance of the Holy Spirit, that lives within us, we CAN endure persecution and love our enemy as Christ loved us.
There is so much more I could write about this prayer alone, but I will refrain. I pray you will read it and believe these words spoken of you as I have done. God is faithful to those who seek Him and ask. He will give to you what you ask. Thank you, God, for your faithfulness and your provision.