Praying for the
Right Things (Colossians 1:9-14)
I remember before I became a Christian, my father
would occasionally tell me that he and my mother were praying for me. I recall thinking, “that and $0.50 would get
me a cup of coffee” (coffee was cheaper back then). As you could probably tell, I wasn’t sold on
the power of prayer. Being an
unbeliever, that is to be expected. Yet
it seems that some Christians do little more than pay lip service to prayer. Before you think I’m any better, let me be
the first to admit that my prayer life isn’t what I want it to be.
Well Paul was a firm believer in the power of
prayer, and instead of listening to me give you my opinion about prayer, why don’t
we let the Apostle Paul instruct us? We
can learn a lot about prayer by reading and studying the great prayers of
Scripture—in particular Paul’s prayers.
They instruct us by focusing our thoughts on the important things and
giving us a proper perspective of the priorities of prayer. In the passage before us, Paul makes two
prayers requests. Following each prayer
request, Paul gives us the reason for the request. He closes the passage with a benediction to
God the Father.
1. Praying for the Knowledge of God’s Will (v. 9).
Paul begins v. 9 with, “And so, from the day we
heard.” What did they hear? They heard about the faith of the Colossian
believers. Imagine Paul sitting in
prison. He was probably witnessing to
whoever was guarding him at the time.
All of a sudden, Epaphras arrives and tells Paul about the awesome work
of the Holy Spirit in Colosse (v. 8).
Paul probably said, “We need to pray for those dear saints in
Colosse.” From that day forward, Paul
prayed for those faithful believers. His
prayer journal would put most of ours to shame.
So what was item #1 on Paul’s prayer list for the
Colossians? “To be filled with the
knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.” Let me tell you, this is an awesome
thing to pray for. “Knowledge” implies
factual information. Paul wishes for us
to know some things. In particular, he
wants us to know God’s will; and not just know it, but to be filled with the
knowledge of it. Without getting too
detailed, theologians divide God’s will into two aspects: God’s sovereign will (or will of
decree, or secret will), and God’s moral will (or will of prescription,
or revealed will). In this passage, Paul
is referring to God’s moral will. How do
we know that? Because it is impossible
to know God’s sovereign will (cf. Deuteronomy 29:29). God’s moral will is revealed to us in the
pages of Scripture. Furthermore, we are
to have this knowledge “with all spiritual wisdom and understanding.” So Paul is praying that we will be so totally
filled with the knowledge of God’s will that it pours forth into intentional
action.
2. The Application of the Knowledge of God’s Will
(v. 10).
What is the purpose of praying for the knowledge of
God’s will? If you ask me to pray for
the healing of a broken leg, or patience to deal with unruly children, I don’t
have to ask why. So why pray for the
knowledge of God’s will? Paul gives us
two reasons in v. 10. The first reason
is so we will “walk in a manner worthy of the Lord.” Walking is a picture of daily living, so Paul
wants us to know God’s will so we will live lives worthy of the Lord. As we said earlier, we are referring to God’s
revealed, moral will in the Bible. So if
we know God’s will, and apply it (i.e., “with all wisdom and understanding”),
we will live lives worthy of the Lord.
For example, the Bible says that husbands are to live with their wives
in an understanding way, showing love and honor toward them (cf. 1 Peter 3:7). If I, as a husband, want to walk worthy of
the Lord, I will do what his word says in regard to my duty toward my
wife. By doing so, I am “fully pleasing
him.” Do you want to put a smile on the
face of your heavenly Father? Follow his
moral will.
The second reason Paul gives for praying for the
knowledge of God’s will is to increase “in the knowledge of God.” God wants his children to know and love
him—that is the essence of relationship!
What better way to know God than by knowing what he wants for your
life? God’s moral will is his desire for
all people to follow. This in
encapsulated in the Ten Commandments, and further boiled down into the Great
Commandment. Knowing God’s will is the
way to knowing God’s heart. There really
is no greater pursuit than the knowledge of God—that is what theology is all about.
3. Praying to be Strengthened in the Lord (v. 11a).
Paul prays for God to accomplish something else in
the Colossian believers (and us by extension), and that is to receive the
Lord’s strength. You may be saying to
yourself, “I don’t need more strength, I’m strong enough. I can do this Christian thing by
myself.” Wrong! The only thing we can do in our own strength
is work in the flesh (cf. Galatians
4. The Application of God’s Strength (vv. 11b –
12a).
Why do we need all this power? We stated above that we need God’s strength
to live the Christian life, but that is too vague an answer. Why specifically do we need God’s
strength? We need God’s strength to
joyfully face trials (v. 11b). When Paul
speaks of enduring and patience, he is referring to trials. Endurance is needed for trying circumstances
(things that happen to us that not of our doing and are beyond our control),
and patience is needed for trying people.
So when circumstances and people start to press in on us, we need God’s
strength to face them with joy! We also
need God’s strength to be thankful in the midst of our trials (v. 12a). Why should we be thankful? Because trials are the means God uses to
build within us Christian character and virtue.
We should be thankful because, through our trials, God is shaping and
molding us into the image of Christ.
5. Praise to God the Father (vv. 12b – 14).
At this point, Paul can’t help breaking into praise
to God the Father. As he was speaking
about giving thanks to God, Paul talks about some of the wonderful things God
has done for us. First, God qualified us
“to share in the inheritance of the saints.”
By ourselves, we are not qualified for anything but judgment. It is God who qualifies us. Secondly, God has “delivered us from the
domain of darkness.” The domain of
darkness speaks of the world of sin and ignorance that once enslaved us. God delivered us; he freed us from our former
lives. However, God didn’t just free us,
he “transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son.” So in delivering us from our sin, he
transferred us (KJV says “translated”) in Christ’s kingdom. Notice that God never frees people to leave
them on their own. We were freed from
slavery and made citizens in the kingdom—i.e., we are still under authority,
and the difference is between a cruel taskmaster and a loving king. Finally, it is through Christ Jesus that we
have redemption, which is the forgiveness of sins.
Application Time.
If you want to ramp up your prayer life, this
passage offers us some practical tips. We
need to get beyond the kindergarten level of prayer. By that I mean praying for physical and
material things such as health, wealth, etc.
Please don’t misconstrue me. It’s
not wrong to pray for someone’s health, nor is it wrong to pray for someone to
blessed materially. What I am saying is
that cannot be the extent of our prayer life.
Jesus said, “Take care, and be on your guard against all
covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his
possessions” (Luke
Bottom Line.
“He has delivered us from the domain of darkness
and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we
have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians
Have
a blessed day!