My prayer for you. Colossians 1.3-14

My Prayer for You.   Colossians 1.3-14

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Greetings~ 

I hear regularly from folks round the world who need to know they are ‘on track’, who need to know that God is looking out for them, loving and guiding them …

Consider these words from a Kenyan brother, quoting in full, “Christine, how is the new year?  I gain a lot from your teaching and my day would not be complete without a reading from you.  I look at how things are happening to me, think about what has happened to me—there is a reason why all are happening.  1) I reap a bad harvest; I plant much, but harvest little.  2) My business income disappears as though I put it in a pocket filled with holes.  3) I look for much and get so little.  Please assist me to find the answer; there is a reason why these things are happening.”

When life is difficult, when things are not going as planned … what to do?  I suppose my default setting prompts me to pray.  So allow me to personalize Paul’s words to the Colossians, turning them into a prayer for God’s people, a prayer for you.

My brothers and sisters, I thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when I pray for you, because I have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus … Friends, do you know what it is like to share in the bond of faith we have and experience in Jesus?  In truth, we share in the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for us in heaven, which comes from the true message of the gospel that has come to you. And then I see how the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world— all because you understand God’s grace, and have made yourselves available to share it with others.  Yes, I see your words of encouragement on Facebook, All About God, and in personal e-mails … I see how God is at work in you!

For this reason, I will not stop praying for you. I will continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, 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, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, 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.

Amen.

To my Kenyan brother – besides praying for you, in an effort to help you assess what is happening in your life, I must humbly ask you what I ask of myself—in Paul’s words, are you ‘living a life worthy of the Lord and pleasing him in every way’?  Are you bearing fruit for God?  Are you growing in the knowledge of God?’  Here’s the thing—our lives must be all one piece.

Never forget that God has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.  Amen.  Adapted from Colossians 1.3-14