“So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.” — Colossians 1:9-10
This is amazing to me. Paul, locked up in prison, is writing to a group of Christians he has never met. You can see the love he has for others because he was constantly praying for them (not himself). His prayer here also focused on spiritual blessing and guidance, rather than physical things. Of course, it is not wrong to pray for physical things, we totally should (Luke 11:5-13). But, our spiritual needs are of a far greater importance.
There are two things that I noticed in his prayer. First, we need spiritual wisdom and understanding. Then we can live a life pleasing to God and produce good fruit. It’s easy to pray for the “fruit” first and forget to pray for wisdom and understanding. We will not be able to produce fruit if we are not walking with the Lord under His guidance. We can tend to pray things like, “Lord, please help me get out of debt.” instead of praying, “Lord, please give me Your wisdom and understanding on how to utilize the money you’ve given to me.” Wisdom and understanding will help us more in the long run rather than just getting us through the problem at hand.
Christian, how often are you praying for spiritual wisdom and understanding for yourself or for those around you? How about those in your church, or even Christians around the world who you don’t even know? Prayer is very powerful and something we can do at any time or place. We just need to open our mouths and communicate with our gracious Father.
Praying for you –
Tony
Posted in A Word from the Pastor