Salvation Summaries

This is my fifth post in a series of posts on how to pray.  It has taken me “forever” to write it due to health issues (recently had sinus surgery and slowly recovering from it), along with the importance of and difficulty in understanding parts of this particular prayer.

In this post, I offer a number of observations regarding Paul’s first prayer to the Colossians, but unlike my other posts, I do not include guidelines in how to pray from it or a sample prayer, for I recommend you simply memorize most of this prayer “as is,” and incorporate parts or all of it into your daily routine.

Prayer

For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may 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 joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. (Colossians 1:9-12, NIV)

Summary

Four things caught my attention when I read this prayer. First, Paul never prays for himself, and rarely asks for prayer. Instead, he offers intercessory prayers for other believers. Second, Paul prays primarily about spiritual matters rather than what we often pray for (help with financial, physical, or emotional concerns).  Maybe he has his mind on heavenly things more than earthly things like the Scriptures tell us to. Third, in order to live a life worthy of and pleasing to God, we need to know God’s will.  I had no idea of this. And fourth, this is a prayer we could and probably should say each day, as it reminds us of what is most important in the life of a Christian.

Audience

Paul wrote this book for believers in Colosse.

Context/Occasion (why did he pray)

The purpose of Colossians was to combat false teachings of Gnosticism that had infiltrated the church.  Gnostics believed that God was unknowable, special knowledge was needed for salvation, Jesus did not really die on the cross only to be raised again, etc.  In response, Paul warned the believers there not to be deceived by fine sounding arguments (Col 2:4) or hollow and deceptive philosophies (2:8), and why he spoke so much about Jesus Christ.

In Paul’s prayer, it appears that the terms knowledge, wisdom and understanding, and references to knowing God’s will and living in a way that pleases Him may have been included to counter these false teachings.  However, the truths and requests in his prayer apply to all believers then and now.

Who he prayed to (Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit, God)

God (Col 1:9)

How he started his prayer (description/acknowledgement/praise)

Paul did not begin this prayer with any descriptive words or phrases about God (such as “Our heavenly Father”), but near the end he used the term “glorious” to describe God’s might and power, and included a comment about what God has done for them (qualified them to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light). He continued this in verse 13 (“For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves…”).

Posture when prayed

The verses do not say if Paul raised his hands, bowed down or closed his eyes when he prayed.

Attitude/emotion when prayed

Paul’s prayer appears to be one of encouragement and instruction that flows out of thankfulness for the Colossian believers (Col 1:3, 9).  They have already shown faith, love and borne fruit; Paul wants them to keep growing spiritually so they may live even more for God.  We should want the same thing.

Order/format/structure of prayer

Unlike Paul’s second prayer in Philippians, which used the ART (admiration, requests with supplication and thanksgiving) format, this prayer contains only two parts.  It begins with requests (receive spiritual wisdom and understanding to know God’s will; live life worthy of Lord and please Him; bear fruit; grow in knowledge…) and ends with acknowledgements (God has qualified them, rescued and brought them…).

The difference in format shows us that there is no standard we need follow when we pray.

Content of prayer

In short, Paul prayed that the Colossians would know God’s will in order to live a life worthy of and pleasing to Him.  To keep this post from becoming much too long, I will briefly address only two parts of this prayer: knowing God’s will, and a living a life that is worthy of and pleasing to God (which deserve a lot more “space” than what I devote to them below).

Knowing God’s Will

I would guess that every believer, at some point in their life, learns that doing God’s will is important, and for a time seeks to determine what it is.  I’ve been a believer since my freshman year in college, which was more than 30 years ago, and I’ve thought about God’s will here and there, but never really studied it (shame on me!), until now.  If you are in the same boat I was, then read on, for I am eager to share with you what I found out about this very important topic.

Colossians 1: 9-10 says that we need to know God’s will in order to live a life worthy of Him, but the verses don’t tell us what His will is or how we can know it.  From reviewing a number of verses that mention God’s will, here is what I learned:

God’s will reveals His sovereignty

• Matthew 10:29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father.

God’s will reveals what He desires for mankind

• to bring everything together (in heaven and on earth) under the authority of Jesus (Eph 1:10)
• to unite Jews and Gentiles into one body with Jesus as the head

God’s will is for His people to be saved and become part of His family

• Jesus gave himself for the sins of others to rescue them from the present evil age (Gal 1:3-5).
• anyone who repents from Godly sorrow (2 Cor 7:10) and puts their faith in or receives Jesus (Eph 1:5-6, John 1:12-13) is adopted into God’s family

God has a will for how saved people should live overall

• to live in the Spirit (1 Peter 4:6), who intercedes or prays on their behalf in a way that they cannot (Rom 8:27).
• to not live for (evil) human desires (1 Peter 4:2-11)
• to abstain from sexual immorality (1 Thes 4:3)
• to not be worldly (1 John 2:15-17)
• to pray, love others deeply, offer hospitality, serve others…to do everything that praises God (1 Peter 4:2-11)
• to rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; (1 Thes 5:16-18)
• to suffer or be persecuted on account of one’s faith (1 Peter 4:19)

God has a will for how saved people should live specifically

• Paul sought God’s will on daily decisions, such as whether he could visit certain believers (Rom 1:10, 1 Cor 4:19).  Also, James advised his readers to seek God’s will for individual decisions (James 4:15 What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.”).  As such, it would appear that we should seek God’s will for the same.

God’s will is something believers should want to take place and pray for

• Matthew 6:9-10 9 “This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10 your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Doing God’s will is something believers should want above all else, for Jesus did this and He is an example of how believers are to live

• Matthew 26:39 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

Doing God’s will is a believer’s responsibility

• Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

• Matthew 12:50  For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”

Based upon the above, we know in some detail what God’s will is and how important it is for us to obey it; however, we still don’t know all of it, especially the specific things God may want us to do or say.  To “be filled” with a knowledge of who God is and what He wants, Paul says we need to receive spiritual wisdom and understanding.

Spiritual wisdom and understanding are available for every believer, for these come from the Holy Spirit that lives inside them.

• 1 Corinthians 2:9-16 9 However, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”– 10 but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. 14 The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man’s judgment: 16 “For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

• 1 Corinthians 3:19-20 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”; 20 and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.”

However, receiving spiritual wisdom and understanding does not happen automatically, or just because we are a believer; rather, we must earnestly seek and ask for it.

• Proverbs 2:1-6 My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, 2 turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, 3 and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, 4 and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, 5 then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. 6 For the LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.

• James 1:5-6 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. 6 But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.

In addition, from reviewing related verses on wisdom and understanding, praying, studying God’s word and the renewing of our mind are other things we can do to help us know more about who God is and what His will is for our lives.

• Colossians 4:3 3 And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains.

• 1 John 5:14 14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

• 2 Timothy 3:16-17 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

• Romans 12:2 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is– his good, pleasing and perfect will.

To summarize this section, the Bible tells us what God’s will is overall and how it relates to believers.  Doing God’s will is something we should want, pray about, and do at least to some degree if we are to consider ourselves a believer.  However, in order to know how to carry out God’s will, and for help in making daily decisions that are consistent with what He wants, we need to receive spiritual wisdom and understanding from the Holy Spirit.  To receive wisdom and understanding, we must earnestly seek it and ask for it.  In addition, we should pray, study the Bible and “renew our mind.” In short, a believer needs to “walk in the Spirit” if he/she wants to know God’s will and be in a position to do it (and if you want to know what this means and how to do it, that’s the subject of another post!).

Living a life that is worthy of and pleasing to God

Thankfully, this topic does not need an explanation, for Paul tells us in his prayer what this life looks like.  A life that is worthy of and pleasing to God is one that:

• bears fruit in every good work
• grows in one’s knowledge of God (thus, through Bible reading, study, and memorization)
• is strengthened with power in order to have endurance and patience through difficult times
• joyfully gives thanks to God

How he ended his prayer

Paul ended his prayer with an acknowledgement about what God has done for them (qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints, rescued you from the dominion of darkness, brought you into the kingdom of the Son).  He did not conclude it the way we often do today, which is “In Jesus name, Amen.”

Frequency of prayer

Paul constantly prayed for the Colossians (Col 1:9).