so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, - Colossians 1: 10 (NIV)
Do you notice the stark difference in the motivation of the prayer Paul says and the wishes of our false teachers from today? The object is not for a bigger house and better car in the driveway. The object in fact has nothing to do with us at all. I know that is a tough pill for many to swallow today because the church teaches the opposite. The actual goal of our prayer life here is to live a life worthy of the Lord. To please Him in every way. To bear fruit in every good work. To grow in the knowledge of the Lord. If you are looking for prayer points tonight, there are four that we can write permanently in our journals. When was the last time the point of the sermon was to promote these as our prayer goals? When was the last time that was expounded on from the pulpit or even in our prayer closet? I say these things beloved from a complete place of lack. Of these I am the least and I too must make a concerted effort to make my prayers about Him and what He can do through me instead of what I think He can do for me.
being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, - Colossians 1: 11 (NIV)
We have the what and the why and now Paul gives us the how. We need to be praying for the strength of God, His power, according to His glorious might - so that we might have great endurance and patience. The first thing that stands out to me is that God realizes how difficult our walk can be sometimes. He is always an understanding God. He is always a merciful God. He realizes how desperately we need patience and endurance. This walk is not a sprint; it is a marathon. We will have many valleys and mountaintops, despite the promises from charlatans who sell the ridiculous notion that every day will be rainbows and unicorns. If you think about people you know who fell away from the faith it was probably due to a loss of patience or a lack of endurance. We need these and we need to be praying for them in advance. We cannot seek them when we have already sunk to the lowest part of the valley. Just like our prayers need to be consistent and persistent, they also need to be bathed in foresight. God has given us His foresight in His Word. He has said we will have great tribulation in this world and we need to be preparing for such in our prayer life. The power of God is not needed if this is our best life now. We need it because God knows that at times it will be our worst life now.
and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. - Colossians 1: 12 (NIV)
Our prayers for the new year also need to be saturated in thanksgiving. We are generally not a thankful people. The false gospels preached today are not geared to make thankful sheep. They are designed to make greedy goats. How can we be thankful if we are constantly looking for what God wants to do for us next? Go back and read the quotes from Osteen and Prince. Expect blessings. This is your time. Really? How about I have already been blessed and it is always God's time! And what here do we see as the primary reason we need to be thankful always? Because those who are truly saved have already been qualified to share the inheritance of God in heaven! When we focus on earthly prosperity and carnal blessings we automatically lose sight of what is more important. We have been translated into eternal life already! If God did nothing else for me my entire life He has already done everything! Beloved one day Jesus will return and He will separate out those who are in Him from those who are not. Eternity has been placed into the hearts of men. Being thankful for this puts whatever earthly trials we face into their proper perspective and reminds us of who we serve. If the same spirit that raised Jesus Christ from the dead now dwells in us of what should we be afraid?
For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, - Colossians 1: 13 (NIV)
I have said it before. Self righteous Christians forget where God found them. The key to humility is remembering where God found us. As such it needs to be part of our prayer life. We are thankful not only for where God has saved us to - but where He has saved us from. We were once in the kingdom of darkness and were bound for an eternity in hell. A subject rarely preached about from the seeker friendly pulpit. We just came out of the Christmas season. Who did the angel say was born unto us this day? A friend? A buddy? A philosopher? No - a Savior! Here is today's deep theology. If we needed a Savior, then we need to be saved from something. Which leads us to the final point from the key verses:
