Use your Words Well. Colossians 4.2-4

Use your words well. Colossians 4.2-4

Friends . . . How do you use your words?   I challenge you today to become a person who uses more words to be thankful, to pray, to encourage others, to bless . . .  

Looking to God’s Word: “Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart. Pray for us, too, that God will give us many opportunities to speak about his mysterious plan concerning Christ. That is why I am here in chains. Pray that I will proclaim this message as clearly as I should.”  Colossians 4.2-4

These are Paul’s closing admonitions to the Christians at Colosse – Give yourselves wholeheartedly to prayer!  And in your prayers, carry me to God-as a minister of the gospel-that though I am in prison now, I will continue to have opportunities to tell the life-changing message of Jesus Christ.  And please—pray that I will proclaim this message clearly!   

Oh Friends, I pray that you too will devote yourselves to prayer!  I pray that you will see with the eyes of your heart the value of communing with the God of the universe, who created all that ever was and shall be, and yet loves you individually.  And in your seeing, that you will pray in the morning as the psalmist did, offering your day to God for his wisdom, direction and care, and then that you will keep an open line of communication all the day long. 

Pray for the teachers, pastors, missionaries who have given themselves to the spreading of the good news of Jesus Christ.  Lift them before the Father, praying they will be faithful and clear, handling the Word of God.  (Humbly, I ask for your prayers; my goodness, if Paul wanted prayer, how much more do I need prayer in the sharing of the Gospel and the teaching of God’s Word!)

Notice with me that Paul did not ask that he would be released from prison . . . huh, that is quite incredible . . . rather, he asks that he would make the most of his opportunities to share Christ.  Think of it, each Roman guard to whom Paul was chained would hear the life-saving, transformational message of Jesus Christ, ‘live and in person’ from the world’s greatest evangelist himself.  Paul did not waste any chance he had to share Jesus. 

And yet again in his letter to the Colossians, Paul stresses the value of being thankful.  Thankfulness is a choice on our part.  Should we choose it, thankfulness can be not just an attitude shift, but a state of being, a mode of operation, a lens through which we see the world.  Scripture holds gratitude as a value to be grasped and lived out.  Certainly, staying mindful of our many blessings for which we carry ‘thanks’ in our hearts is key to knowing contentment in this life. 

"Now thank we all our God, maker of Heaven and earth . . .while much is uncertain on a daily basis, we know who holds the future, and we know who holds our hand.

We look to You, O God, and lift our hearts in thankfulness to our great God.

Daily, we underestimate your power; often, we fail to note how you are working around us...

We thank you, Lord, that you would choose to involve us in your work; we thank you that indeed you cause all to work together for good to those who love you.

Thank you for life and breath and strength--we offer ourselves to you this day." Amen and Amen

Christine