THE GOSPEL REASON: LITTLE PRAYERS THAT GROW- OUR PERSPECTIVE OF PRAYER
COLOSSIANS 1:3-23, 27
Hello everyone: I hope you are enjoying, learning, and being challenged as you have begun Colossians in our Fall Sunday School Study. Today, I would like to encourage you with what Paul shows us in Colossians 1 of the Early New Testament Church’s Perspective of Prayer. I believe there are some things here in Colossians that can help us, as New Testament Believers in our persevering and persisting two thousand years later through our perspective of prayer. Please notice, I used “OF PRAYER” not “ON PRAYER” because we all agree as Believers that prayer is important but what is to be our Biblical understanding as we pray? Paul has a lot to say about that in his Prison Epistles and in Colossians.
We’ve talked a lot about “what we are up against” as believers in today’s changing society but with all those changes, troubles, darkness, and fallen ness around us we need to be reminded how our “little prayers” must grow as Paul’s prayers grew in his letters to the early churches. The most powerful and comprehensive prayers of intercession (praying for others) in all of scripture are found in Paul’s Prison Epistles (plus Thessalonians). I’ve listed some of those prayers at the end of this devotion for us to meditate on (see* Note 1).
In church, we are often told that we need to have a prayerful perspective over life as Believers. And many people do, or at least attempt to adopt a “prayerful” attitude. I mean, we need a prayerful attitude, right? Things are bad! Prayer is what we do first- it is the first place we turn in response to our fears, a fallen world and broken lives AND we turn to prayer everywhere in between. The enormity of our problems demands it, but there is a GREATER reason a greater perspective of prayer- a GOSPEL reason that Paul shows us and it is this Gospel reason that is the catalyst for our little prayers to grow in depth and breadth as we mature in our faith!
In Colossians Paul doesn’t give us a perspective ON prayer, but the perspective OF prayer. Paul is in prison “he’s got it rough” so do the Colossians, Ephesians, Thessalonians (not a prison letter but still they faced persecution), Philippians, Onesimus, Philemon, Epaphroditus and Epaphras! But Paul doesn’t want the desperateness of his, theirs, or our situations- the felt needs, suffering, and confusing issues to be the foundational, motivating force behind our praying but instead the supremacy of Christ and the sufficiency of His Gospel over us and all things as the tangible, firm, confident, faithful, and motivating Truth behind all of our prayers and praying! CHRIST SUPREME- in person (Fully God and Fully Man), and supreme indeed (thru His Gospel He saves us from Hell, the Holy Spirit transforms, changes, bears fruit in our lives and fits us for Heaven as The Kingdom comes). This is the perspective of all prayer and every kind of prayer: in and out of season, in sorrow and joy, pain and healing, laughter and tears, from the quiet simple moments of the everyday to the defining legacies of a funeral benediction at our earthly end- little prayers that grow should mark our lives!
Little, though our prayers may be- let us never forget the magnitude of their perspective- they are among the greatest things and treasures of God given for us to be used by us from earth to heaven now, and in the last days from heaven to earth (see Revelation 5 and 8-*see Note 2). That magnitude is not lost on Paul and in the way he prays for others, nor should it be lost on us. God save us not from little prayers but “stagnant prayers” “faithless prayers” prayers that don’t recognize the Gospel that makes them possible! Prayer is not a “human” act but a spiritual one overseen and directed by the Holy Spirit as our spirit is brought into one accord with Him (see Romans 8). Let us not utter prayers that refuse to grow in spiritual depth, breadth, passion and compassion for others over time and maturity. Instead let our prayers grow in the life of God’s Kingdom thru Christ (“who causes us to stand” and holds everything together- {synistemi in the Greek where we get our word “synthesis” from… Col 1:17})- changing/transforming things, changing others, changing us- impacting the world for the glory of God and the welfare/transformation of His Creation from “old” to “NEW”.
As you pray for other Believers’ needs and requests (like Paul did) remember he/she has been raised alive by the blood of Christ from the waters of spiritual death and one day will be raised from and out of the ground of physical death to walk in the newness of life- a newness of life that begins anew today and is onward towards forever!
Little prayers that grow are the hallmark of a maturing Believer’s life because they recognize the expansiveness of the Gospel that we live under and the protection, redemption and purpose Christ’s Gospel gives! Our little prayers start to grow when they recognize Jesus has given us ALL THE BEST of Himself before even one of our days has come to be (notice Paul’s expansive language in Chapter 1) and the strength of our prayers comes from Him in His supremacy and sufficiency of His Gospel that is alive and at work in and through us (v. 27). That is what Paul is letting the Colossians know! So, before that little or big ogre of a problem, tribulation, trial, or trouble pops its ugly head on our horizon, understand the context that stands before (ALPHA) and after (OMEGA) our prayers is JESUS and His Gospel. It will change our perspective OF prayer and the way we pray! Jesus knows our end before our beginning because He created us, He has plans for us, and He is before the beginning and after the end granting us all hope- Gospel hope when we believe! We can trust every one of life’s situations, every circumstance no matter how large or how small, all of ourselves and others as well in His care through prayer. Paul’s perspective of prayer covers his Christian family with the Gospel expansively and comprehensively and our prayers should cover our Christian family the same way too! ALL THE BEST this week!
Love in Christ, Darrin.
Notes
1. “We always thank God for all of you mentioning you in our prayers. We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers loved by God that He has chosen you, because our Gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction.” 1 Thessalonians 1:2-3a
“With this in mind, (see v.3-10) we constantly pray for you. That our God may count you worthy of His calling, and that by His power He may fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith. We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you and you in Him, according to the grace of God and the Lord Jesus Christ.” 2nd Thessalonians 1:11-12
“For this reason (the Gospel reason- see v.3-14) ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation so that you may know Him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of His mighty strength, which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms far above all rule and authority power and dominion…” Ephesians 1:15-21… see also Ephesians 3:1-20
“I always thank my God as I remember you in my prayers, because I hear about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints. I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ.” Philemon 4-6
“I thank my god every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the Gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:3-6
“And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.” Philippians 1:9-11
“We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people— 5 the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel 6 that has come to you. In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world—just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace… For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives,[a] 10 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, 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, 12 and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you[b] to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. 13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” Colossians 1:3-6, 10-14
2. Notice that the “prayers of the saints” of the church (Rev. 5 & 8) are present in the throne room of God in Heaven. The Church’s prayers are held in golden bowls by the worshipping elders before the feet of The Lamb (Jesus) and then poured out upon the altar and hurled with the censer towards earth as Christ fulfills God’s righteous judgment and justice at the end. John shows us a great anticipation from the church for Christ’s final redemption of Creation and all things and it is reflected in their prayers which are made worthy by the blood of the Lamb who alone is worthy to redeem all Creation and open the Seal. Our prayers are qualified and made worthy by what Christ has done and our prayers can be an offering of worship before God- even in times of great trouble and tribulation.