I have always loved the prayers that Paul includes in his letters to the churches.  They all have a slightly different take based upon his relationship with that church and how that particular church is doing.  I have often wondered what kind of letter and greeting we might get from him today.  Let’s look at this pray together today found in Colossians 1. 

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, 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 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.

When I first began to prepare to be a Pastor I remember a mentor of mine stressing this particular passage and just how important it is to pray every day for your people.  Prayer not only is a powerful tool but it sets your mind on what you hope God will do in and through the people of the church.  Paul prays for knowledge and wisdom and understanding.  He prays that they might live a life worthy of the Lord and bear fruit.  He prays that they might be strengthened in power and have great endurance and patience.  To me the natural tendency might be for him to address each of these things in the remainder of his letter but instead he immediately just goes into talking about Jesus.  The supremacy of Jesus is the central theme of the book.  It is a good reminder of our priority to simply point people to Jesus.  When we show people Jesus the rest of those things seem to fall into place.  So today my prayer for you all is that we might be a people who look to Jesus and point others to Him as well.  I think that’s a pretty good thing to pray for.

In His Grip,
Pastor Dave