THE PRAYERS OF PAUL
We've looked at many prayers over these past couple months-the Our Father, the prayer of Jabez, Elijah's prayers, Hannah's prayer, Daniel's prayer, Nehemiah's prayers, and last week we looked at Jesus' prayer. Today, as we finish our series on the prayers of the bible, we'll look at some of Paul's prayers. I covered some of them when I did the intercessory prayer sermon. Today's prayers are intercessory too but we'll look at the specifics of what Paul prayed for his fellow Christians; realizing that we should be focused on these things too.
1) "Fill 'em up!"
Col. 1:9-12, "For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light."
What Paul prays for here you see him expound on in the rest of his letter to the Colossians. When you get to chapter three you see the nuts and bolts of how the things he prays for in these verses gets accomplished.
"For this reason". In the preceding verses, Paul highlights their faith in Christ and their love for the saints. He mentions that the gospel has been bearing fruit and growing among them. Therefore, Paul wants them to continue in this and keep thriving. We should be like that. When we hear about how well someone is doing in the Lord and all the work they are doing we should be compelled to pray that it would only grow and increase from there.
"Fill you with knowledge of his will". Paul wants the Colossian church to fully know the will of God. Being filled with the knowledge of his will comes when I am filled with the desire to do his will. The beginning of Rom. 12 tells me that when I choose to no longer be conformed to the pattern of the world and instead be transformed by the renewing of my mind I will be able to test and approve what God's will is.
I can't really be filled with the knowledge of the will of God if I'm not able to determine and agree with God's will. God's will won't be clear if I'm not thinking spiritually. The clearer his will becomes and the more I approve of his will the more I will apply it and the more I will be filled with it.
"Through all spiritual wisdom and understanding." Notice Paul said spiritual wisdom. There are two kinds of wisdom.
James 3:13-17, "Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth.
Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere."
Worldly wisdom is dangerous because it draws us away from God because in our pride we think we’re so smart we don’t need God. But if we are truly wise and understanding we will recognize our great need for God. We will be humble, realizing that we can do no good thing apart from him. Godly wisdom recognizes our dependence on God.
Worldly wisdom is manipulative, deceptive and coercive. It seeks dishonest gain. There are many criminals who are very smart at what they do. That's worldly wisdom; not heavenly wisdom. Heavenly wisdom brings forth good fruit; not bad fruit.
And then we see why Paul prayed these things in Col. 1: it was so they would live a worthwhile life, please the Lord in every way, bear fruit in every work, grow in their knowledge of God, be strong, have great endurance, patience and gratitude.
It's like Paul is saying that if they were to be filled with the knowledge of God's will and had spiritual wisdom and understanding then the result would be all these wonderful attributes. This is the total transformation. To please the Lord in every way and to bear fruit in every work is living a life that is worthwhile.
This is what Paul wants for the church. He wants them to grow in their knowledge of God. He wants them to grow in their spiritual wisdom and understanding of God's will. He wants them to be conformed to the image of Jesus so that the light may shine bright through them, causing those who don't know Christ to want to know him. Is this what we want? Will we pray this prayer for ourselves and our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ?
I like the complete word choices Paul uses in this passage. "Fill you with the knowledge", "with all spiritual wisdom and understanding", "please the Lord in every way", "bearing fruit in every good work", "strengthened with all power". Paul didn't just want them to have some, he wants them to have all-he wanted them to be full.
We should pray that way too. We need to pray that we would be full. We need to pray that we would bear fruit in every work and please God in every way. We should pray to be strengthened with all of God's power. Let's not deprive ourselves or any of our fellow Christians anymore. Forget the smaller portions-let's be full.
2) "May your love thrive".
Phil. 1:9-11, "And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God."
Paul's prayer for the Philippians is that their love would abound. To abound means to increase, to prosper, to flourish...to thrive. Love is meant to grow; it's meant to increase as time goes on. It makes sense. If we are going through the process of becoming like Christ then it's inevitable that our love would grow.
It's interesting that Paul prayed that their love would abound-in knowledge and depth of insight. This kind of goes along with what we looked at earlier in Col. 1:9 about being filled with the knowledge of God's will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. Love is not absent from this; it is grouped in with Paul's desire for the church to be filled and to grow in knowledge, wisdom, understanding, discernment, etc.
Love is not simply emotional or sentimental-it is rooted in understanding and depth of insight. This is realized first in the idea of understanding and gaining insight into the love God has for us. When we have this we are able to grow in our love for God. This is what Paul prayed for the Ephesian church.
Eph. 3:17b-19, "And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."
Paul saw the value in being able to understand the love of Jesus. Paul said it surpassed knowledge-it is beyond our ability to completely make sense of, because it defies description. There's nothing else like it-it's beyond comparison. But we can grasp it-we can understand it enough to be convinced by it and be filled with it. We can contemplate it even though it is beyond measure. We can know how deep it is when we look at what God gave up for us-his son. We can know the deep love of Christ when we look at what he gave up for us-his life.
We also gain understanding and insight into the love God has for others and in turn our love for others grows. If my love for God is growing then my love for others will grow too. The more I understand what you're dealing with or been through the more sympathetic and helpful I will be.
Not only that, but gaining understanding and insight can also cause me to be more wise in the way I love you. Paul wanted their love to abound in knowledge and depth of insight, so that they would be able to discern what is best. If I know more about you or your situation I can determine what course of action I should take.
Sometimes when we love someone, our emotions can cause us to be enabling. But in these types of situations, truly loving them would be to deny them the things they want because it will only serve to hurt or hinder them and they will not be better off in the long run. It's not always easy to discern what is best but the more our love grows in knowledge and depth of insight the more capable we will be at loving others.
That's how God is with us. We don't always get what we want but that's because God's depth of understanding and insight allows him to love us the right way. God knows when to say 'no' and when to say 'yes' and when to say 'not right now'.
Paul's desire is for the church to be wise and discerning in their love for others. He wanted their love for God and others to abound more and more. That needs to be our prayer for ourselves and for our fellow believers. If we are focused on growing in love then there will be the fulfillment of what Jesus prayed in John 17-oneness between us and God and unity between us and other Christians. And there will be more of a focus on spreading the gospel and serving others in the name of Jesus. This is thriving love.
3) Sanctification and glorification.
At the end of Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians he was giving some final instructions. Among them we find this in 1st Thess. 5:16-24, "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not put out the Spirit’s fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt.
Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil. May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it."
Although this passage doesn't specifically include the word "prayer" I think it's implied by Paul saying, "May God". He's asking something of God for the Thessalonians. When we hope something for someone, typically we are also praying that God would cause that something to happen.
Paul wants God to sanctify them; that they would be blameless, not sinless, but blameless. That means someone who lives a life of integrity and morality. Someone like a Daniel, whose adversaries tried but couldn't find any corruption in him. We could use a little more integrity and morality in the world today, right?
That's why it's so important for the church to be blameless. So if someone ever accused us of inappropriate behavior they would have no grounds. We're to live honorable lives; lives that get noticed. People need to see that we live by the principles of Christ.
And Paul describes what will help us to do that in the beginning of the passage. Be joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances. These principles get noticed. Hold onto the good, avoid the evil; this is a must for blameless living. Do not put out the Spirit's fire. The Holy Spirit's fire needs to burn bright so that the flame can be seen by others.
Fire is inviting and warming. Fire is mesmerizing; it's consuming. This is what the fire of the Holy Spirit will do for those around us who are captivated by what they see in us. This is the by-product of our sanctification. In Paul's second letter to the Thessalonians, he prays that Jesus would be glorified in them.
2nd Thess. 1:11-12, "With this in mind, 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 our God and the Lord Jesus Christ."
"With this in mind". Paul mentions in the previous verse about the day of Jesus' return where he will be glorified in his holy people. He wanted them to know that they were included in this. So, with this in mind, Paul prays for them. We see that in this passage and the previous one Paul focused on two of the things that Jesus focused on in his prayer John 17: being sanctified and glorifying God. That's what we need to be focused on-that we and other Christians would be sanctified and bring glory to God.
"Worthy of his calling". Although no one is worthy of God's grace, we show ourselves to be worthy by living in accordance with faith. We don't earn our salvation but we show it by our works. Eph. 2:8-10 says that we are saved by grace through faith and not by works but we were created in Christ to do good works. So, we are not saved by works but we are saved for works.
And it is by those works of the faith that we are counted worthy of the calling we have received. God has a calling on our lives; he has a mission, a plan and a purpose for us. And the calling he had on the Thessalonians was being fulfilled and Paul wanted them to make sure they continued in this calling.
2nd Thess. 1:3-5, "We ought always to thank God for you, brothers, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love every one of you has for each other is increasing. Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring. All this is evidence that God’s judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering."
Again, although no one is worthy of the kingdom of God, God will count us worthy as we continue to act in accordance with our new nature like they were doing. Paul talks about being worthy in his other letters as well. In Eph. 4:1 he said, "I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received." Phil. 1:27, "conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ". And in Col. 1:10, "in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord".
Since we are unworthy of God's grace, our attitude should be to respond to that grace by living our lives in service to him. That's really what Paul's point is in all this. His prayer is that we would never lose that desire and determination to grow in love and fulfill our calling. His desire is that we would persevere through all trials and hardships, humbly keeping in mind that regardless of our troubles we are still unworthy servants. Our positive response to our unworthiness will cause us to be worthy of the calling we have received.
"So that". You see this phrase a lot in Paul's prayers. He starts with the prayer and then gives the reason. "I pray such and such for you and here's why". I think that's something we can be mindful of in our prayers; especially if we mention to someone that we're praying for them. It's good to communicate 'this is what I'm praying for you and why'.
Even when we're praying for ourselves it's good to contemplate why. What's the reason I'm praying what I'm praying? What's the "so that" answer for my prayer? We should challenge ourselves in our prayers to see if there's a sincere and valuable purpose behind what we're praying. If we examined our prayers to see what the outcome would be if it were granted we might see that it should be altered or changed altogether.
I can see this being useful regarding what Paul said in 2 Thess. 1:11: "that he may fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith". When we're mindful of the 'so that' in regards to our prayers I'm thinking our prayers will be more Spirit filled and in turn we will see the power of God fulfilling those prayers more often.
This is what we'll see happen when we're focused on sanctification and glorifying God. Paul knew their importance and so he prayed that the church would be about these things. We need to pray this for us and our fellow believers.
