-Here is a second time Paul says that he is constantly praying for these Colossians believers. He is not only giving thanks for them, thankful that the Word of God is bearing fruit and increasing in their lives. He is also praying and asking on their behalf - and that without ceasing. The sad truth is there are very few people I do not cease to pray for. Which points out several sad things about me - I don't fully realize the power and potential of prayer, I don't care about most people enough (about their spiritual destiny and their progress in the faith) to bring this awesome power to bear on their lives (I do care, but not enough), and frankly I am just too spiritually selfish and lazy. I am not yielded enough nor am I spending sufficient time in prayer to see this power really unleashed in and through my life. My prayers tend to be a-little-dab’ll-do-ya’s, eleventh hour requests for things that concern me. There's a lot of meat left on that bone. Oh how small my heart and my faith, these.
-One thing which might help is to identify a 'target audience', the people to whom God has sent me to bless. Truth is I already have one - I just need help identifying it. Ask yourself, to whom has the Lord sent me? It's not about ability, It's about access. To whom do I have access as part of my everyday routine? Who is it that through my words and my deeds AND my prayers I have been given the chance to bless and to be a part of helping to change their spiritual destiny? Who is it that I have the chance to help follow Jesus? No doubt much of my malaise vis a vis praying for and blessing others goes back to my own heart for the Lord, how real and how awesome He is (or is not) to me. The more consumed I am with Jesus and what He wants, the more focused on others I should be, and the better positioned I will be to bless them with Jesus and the goodness of God.
-Paul's prayer for the Colossians reflects this truth. He is asking the Lord to fill them, to control and consume them, with the knowledge of His theléma, of what He wants. And what does the Lord want? What does He care about most? It is His glory, His breathtaking goodness and greatness. It is His glory being known and celebrated to the ends of the earth. It is thus Himself that He cares most about, and rightly so. And He wants every person everywhere to not just KNOW the truth that He is unsurpassingly and unimaginably good and great but to truly UNDERSTAND this truth and to know HOW TO LIVE in light of it (which is wisdom), to put Him first in their hearts and minds and lives, to love Him more than anything or anyone - TO WANT HIM. He wants those He designed as His image bearers to know and celebrate and spread the knowledge of His breathtaking goodness wherever we are, wherever we go. This is what He wants. And Paul's vision for these folks whom he does not even know is for them to be consumed with living into what God wants. To that end he is praying for them constantly. Like I say, there's a lot of meat left on that bone...
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