“Never stop praying” (1 Thessalonians 5:17 NLT)
”So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.” (Hebrews 4:16 NLT)
“Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.” (Mark 11:24 NKJV)
I am getting so much out of Paul’s prayers that I want to keep going. We have probed, personalized, and prayed together Ephesians 1:15-23, Ephesians 3:13-21, and Philippians 1:3-11. Today we are going to begin examining another powerful prayer that the Apostle Paul prayed. This time he is praying for the Colossian believers. This prayer is found in Colossians 1:3-14. Let’s use the same outline that we used with the previous prayers…
…Step 1: Probe the prayer under the light of the Holy Spirit.
…Step 2: Personalize the prayer with the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
…Step 3: Pray the prayer through the power of the Holy Spirit
As before, we will start by reading the prayer and relying on the Holy Spirit to prepare us to grow in our prayer lives as we pray with Paul…
…“Every time we pray for you our hearts overflow with thanksgiving to Father God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. For we have heard of your devoted lives of faith in Christ Jesus and your tender love toward all his holy believers. Your faith and love rise within you as you access all the treasures of your inheritance stored up in the heavenly realm. For the revelation of the true gospel is as real today as the day you first heard of our glorious hope, now that you have believed in the truth of the gospel.
This is the wonderful message that is being spread everywhere, powerfully changing hearts throughout the earth, just like it has changed you! Every believer of this good news bears the fruit of eternal life as they experience the reality of God’s grace.
Our beloved coworker, Epaphras, was there from the beginning to thoroughly teach you the astonishing revelation of the gospel, and he serves you faithfully as Christ’s representative. He’s informed us of the many wonderful ways love is being demonstrated through your lives by the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.
Since we first heard about you, we’ve kept you always in our prayers that you would receive the perfect knowledge of God’s pleasure over your lives, making you reservoirs of every kind of wisdom and spiritual understanding. We pray that you would walk in the ways of true righteousness, pleasing God in every good thing you do. Then you’ll become fruit-bearing branches, yielding to his life, and maturing in the rich experience of knowing God in his fullness! And we pray that you would be energized with all his explosive power from the realm of his magnificent glory, filling you with great hope.
Your hearts can soar with joyful gratitude when you think of how God made you worthy to receive the glorious inheritance freely given to us by living in the light. He has rescued us completely from the tyrannical rule of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom realm of his beloved Son. For in the Son all our sins are canceled and we have the release of redemption through his very blood.” (Colossians 1:3-14 TPT)
Holy Spirit – we are relying on you to prepare our hearts and minds to receive from Paul’s prayer whatever you desire to deposit within us. Be our guide and our teacher as we ponder…
…Eric’s Life Lesson # 484: Praying With Paul – Colossians 1:3-14: Part 1