Daily Bread Colossians 4
Daily Bread
Colossians 4
1Masters, provide your slaves with what is right and fair, because you know that you also have a Master in heaven.
Further Instructions
2Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. 3And 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. 4Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. 5Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. 6Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.
Observation:
As Paul closes out this short book to the church at Colossae, he focuses on the power of prayer. The best definition I have heard for prayer is a “conversation with God under the influence of the Holy Spirit”. Paul urges the believers to focus on several things as they commit themselves to pray.
First, Paul says that as they pray they should be “watchful” and “thankful”. The word “watch” is often associated with prayer. Why? As we watch for things going on in the world, we will know what to pray for. As the song goes, “Open the Eyes of My Heart Lord”. As our eyes are open to see what God is doing or wants to do in the world, this will inform our prayers. Just watch the news and you will have plenty to pray for in the world.
Second, Paul says to be thankful. In other verses he tells us to be thankful in all circumstances. This is hard to do especially when you don’t see your prayers being answered, or things don’t go very well. Listing out all of our blessings can be a way of maintaining an attitude of gratitude. This will help us to pray with a Spirit of thanksgiving even during the trials of our lives or people we love.
Third, Paul prays that God would open doors for the gospel and that He and others would proclaim the Good News as clearly as possible. When God gives us an open door, we need to be ready to clearly and concisely present the Good News to those God leads us to.
Finally Paul prays that our conversations and interactions with outsiders be “full of grace” and “seasoned with salt”. You never know who may be listening, and if you are a Christian, people will be watching the way you act and talk. If we are judgmental, gossipy and harsh on others it will not be a very good reflection of the Good News. Some might conclude, “If this is Christianity I don’t want it!”
Application:
The only way we can live a life of prayer is to make prayer a central part of our lives. Besides being in God’s Word on a consistent basis, prayer is one of the most important habits we can cultivate (also called “spiritual discipline”).
Jesus never did anything really important without spending large amounts of time in prayer with His Heavenly Father. If he needed this time to be re-calibrated and to be aligned with God’s will, how much more do we need it?
Of course the challenge is our busy schedules that we all have to contend with. Yet I find even just 10 or 15 minutes of prayer will change my attitude and outlook on the whole day, not to mention how it is affecting the spiritual and natural world around us.
Could I ask you to pray with me? First I would ask that you pray for my sister in law, Siri Andrews, who recently had a reoccurrence of cancer in her liver and lungs. We are praying for a miracle of healing and that God would surround her and her husband with grace, love and peace. Our family would truly appreciate that.
Secondly, let’s pray that we would all make the most of the opportunities we are given to share the Good News with those we live and work with, and that we would speak and act in ways that draw people to want to know more about Jesus.
Let’s pray… Gracious God please help my sister in law Siri and her husband Jason, and grant them healing and peace during this very hard trial. Help us to trust in you for this. And also help us to be people who make the most of every opportunity to share the life changing Gospel that gives us hope no matter what we are going through. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Colossians 4
1Masters, provide your slaves with what is right and fair, because you know that you also have a Master in heaven.
Further Instructions
2Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. 3And 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. 4Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. 5Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. 6Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.
Observation:
As Paul closes out this short book to the church at Colossae, he focuses on the power of prayer. The best definition I have heard for prayer is a “conversation with God under the influence of the Holy Spirit”. Paul urges the believers to focus on several things as they commit themselves to pray.
First, Paul says that as they pray they should be “watchful” and “thankful”. The word “watch” is often associated with prayer. Why? As we watch for things going on in the world, we will know what to pray for. As the song goes, “Open the Eyes of My Heart Lord”. As our eyes are open to see what God is doing or wants to do in the world, this will inform our prayers. Just watch the news and you will have plenty to pray for in the world.
Second, Paul says to be thankful. In other verses he tells us to be thankful in all circumstances. This is hard to do especially when you don’t see your prayers being answered, or things don’t go very well. Listing out all of our blessings can be a way of maintaining an attitude of gratitude. This will help us to pray with a Spirit of thanksgiving even during the trials of our lives or people we love.
Third, Paul prays that God would open doors for the gospel and that He and others would proclaim the Good News as clearly as possible. When God gives us an open door, we need to be ready to clearly and concisely present the Good News to those God leads us to.
Finally Paul prays that our conversations and interactions with outsiders be “full of grace” and “seasoned with salt”. You never know who may be listening, and if you are a Christian, people will be watching the way you act and talk. If we are judgmental, gossipy and harsh on others it will not be a very good reflection of the Good News. Some might conclude, “If this is Christianity I don’t want it!”
Application:
The only way we can live a life of prayer is to make prayer a central part of our lives. Besides being in God’s Word on a consistent basis, prayer is one of the most important habits we can cultivate (also called “spiritual discipline”).
Jesus never did anything really important without spending large amounts of time in prayer with His Heavenly Father. If he needed this time to be re-calibrated and to be aligned with God’s will, how much more do we need it?
Of course the challenge is our busy schedules that we all have to contend with. Yet I find even just 10 or 15 minutes of prayer will change my attitude and outlook on the whole day, not to mention how it is affecting the spiritual and natural world around us.
Could I ask you to pray with me? First I would ask that you pray for my sister in law, Siri Andrews, who recently had a reoccurrence of cancer in her liver and lungs. We are praying for a miracle of healing and that God would surround her and her husband with grace, love and peace. Our family would truly appreciate that.
Secondly, let’s pray that we would all make the most of the opportunities we are given to share the Good News with those we live and work with, and that we would speak and act in ways that draw people to want to know more about Jesus.
Let’s pray… Gracious God please help my sister in law Siri and her husband Jason, and grant them healing and peace during this very hard trial. Help us to trust in you for this. And also help us to be people who make the most of every opportunity to share the life changing Gospel that gives us hope no matter what we are going through. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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