HOW TO PRAY TO CHANGE LIVES
COLOSSIANS 1:9-14
“Prayer Changes Things.” That is a statement that many of us are familiar with. This series of messages on prayer will help us to learn how to pray prayers that will change lives. Learning to pray can change our lives. However, for that to happen, you will have to apply the information that I share with you to your life. In other words these messages must become part of your daily life.
Today’s message is entitled, “How To Pray To Change Lives.” We live in a time when lives need to be changed for the good of man kind and the glory of God. Sinners need to become Saints and Saints need to become more like the Lord Jesus Christ with each passing day.
In this passage of scripture, we will see a prayer Paul prayed for the Colossian Christians. In this prayer, you and I will find truths, if applied, which can and will change our lives and the lives of people that are very dear to us. As we study this prayer, I am sure you will want someone to pray such a prayer for you. I know that you will think of someone in your life who needs you to pray such a prayer for them.
Listen to Paul’s words. 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. For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
The most powerful thing anyone can do for someone else is to pray for them. Because through prayer you and I can touch the heart of God who in turn can touch anyone, anywhere regardless of circumstances. The power is not in the prayer itself, but in the power that God releases in response to the prayer.
Let me ask you. Is there someone in your life you are praying for everyday? Or is there someone you began praying for but lately you have slacked off in your prayers for them? Do you believe God is going to change someone’s life because you are praying for him or her? As we look at Paul’s prayer, I believe it is possible to learn how to pray a prayer that can change the lives of others for their good and God’s glory. ( Let me insert a thought here. Our prayers to see people’s lives changed should not be motivated by selfish reasons. Sometimes when we pray for some ones life to be changed, it is more for our benefit than there’s.) Prayer has nothing to do with your vocabulary. It does not matter if you use good grammar. And it has nothing to do with how well you feel about your ability to pray. To my knowledge nowhere in God’s word are we instructed to pray eloquent prayers. Effective praying has nothing to do how with eloquent we pray. Effective praying involves praying the scriptures mixed with faith that God will honor His word. When we pray the scriptures, we are in fact praying God’s word. That is telling God that we are more interested in His will for our lives than we are our wills.
From Paul’s prayer we can learn to pray the kind of prayers which release God’s power into our lives and the lives of those that we are praying for. Paul’s prayer is the kind of prayer specifically suited for everyone who reads it, understands it and who hears it. It is the kind of prayer I would like to have all of you here praying for me every day.
THE REASON WE DO NOT HAVE OUR PRAYERS ANSWERED
Notice verse 9, For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. One of the reasons we do not see God doing big things as a result of our prayers is because we falter at the very first verse of this passage. The reason is because we cease to pray. Yes, we do get fired up for a few days. We shake the heavens with our prayers, and about a week later, we forget that prayer because we don’t see the results that we want to see, we have the idea that God is not going to act because He does not meet our schedule the way we want Him to. “I want it done now God and if you don’t I will stop praying." At other times we get so caught up in the activities of life. We just get to busy and forget to pray. Paul said, We have not stopped praying for you. As consistent as the waves are coming to the shore, so were Paul’s prayers for the saints at Colosse. Just as you can’t stop the waves from coming to the shore, you could not stop the prayers of Paul. This is how we are to pray! Paul never stopped praying
If mothers and fathers prayed these specific prayers for their children, they would see dramatic changes in the children. If husbands and wives began to pray this for each other, they would see something happen in their marriage. If you prayed this prayer for your employer you would see a big change in them. Pray this prayer for someone with whom you are having difficulty. Pick someone out and pray this prayer that you want to see God work something special in his or her life. Paul made five request for these Saints that are just as relevant for us today as they were to those Saints then.
A. PRAY THAT THEY MAY KNOW THE PURPOSE OF GOD
Look at verse 9 again, Asking God to fill you with the knowledge of His will. Paul did not pray that the Colossians would wonder about the will of God. He prayed that they would know God’s will. The Greek word means “to have specific knowledge.”
Listen. If God has a will for our lives, and He does, His desire for our lives will be clear. If you read the stories of the Old Testament you will find that God was specific with them. When God told Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac, He did not say, “I want you to take a journey with me.” He said, “I want you to take your son to Mt. Moriah and sacrifice him.” God gave specific directions that were clear.
One of the petitions we should pray for ourselves and those we love is, “Lord, give us full knowledge of Your will,” not just some sort of an idea, but direct knowledge of Your will for our lives. This is what I want to pray for my children. God never intends for His children to go in a general direction making decisions on our own. If God has a will for our lives, He has a will which gives directions that are always good for the child and always good for His relationship to that child. God does not give general directions. He gives precise directions, but they can only be found in the word of God.
Notice Paul says, Through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. I have known some Christians who have sought advice from non-Christian counselors about what they should do with their lives. This is totally contrary to what God would have them do. Just going in the right direction will not cause you to achieve what God wants you to become. The only way to precisely and fully become what God wants you to become is to fully and precisely obey what God wants you to do. You cannot obey what you do not know. Paul says, Through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. This means “to develop the mind of God,” seeing it from His perspective. That is developing the ability not only to determine what is right and wrong but also what is good and bad--the ability to discern the will of God through His word and the leading of His Spirit. This is what we want, not just what is right and wrong but to see it from God’s perspective. Yes, the world can give you advice that seems rational and reasonable, but is also totally opposite of what God wants for your life.
B. PRAY THAT THEY MAY LIVE A LIFE PRAISEWORTHY OF GOD
Notice verse 10, And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way. Some of your Bibles use the word “walking.” If the Bible uses the word “walking,” such as walking in the trespasses of sin or walking with God, it is referring to our lifestyle, our conduct and our behavior.
What does Paul mean when he says, Live a life worthy of the Lord? The word “worthy” means “weight.” So when Paul prayed, he prayed that their lives would have some substance to it, that their lives would be worthy of their Lord. How much weight do our lives carry with God? He says we are to live our lives in a manner that is worthy of our Lord. Look at the weight of Jesus’ life. Every where He went people were changed; lives were altered. Nothing was ever the same after Jesus was there. Listen, if we are living a life that has no depth, has no character, has no understanding of our relationship to God, a life that is merely gratifying the flesh, a life that is spent instead of being invested, our life has no weight whatsoever. So we are to pray that our life would be weighted, that it will have some substance about it.
Imagine someone praying that for you every day of your life. “Lord, I want to pray in Jesus’ name that you would give him/her clear direction in their lives. Lord, that the quality of their lives may be a life that weighs heavy. I pray that wherever they go that they will make an undeniable impact in the lives of other people and in the community where thee live.” What do you suppose the impact would be on your children if you prayed that prayer for them everyday? “God, so speak to my children, so work in their lives that their lives will have some substance to them.” The problem with our world is that the majority of the people do not care if their lives have any substance to them. Christians are not concerned that their lives are worthy of their relationship to Christ.
C. PRAY THAT THEY WILL LIVE PRODUCTIVE LIVES
The Lives we live as Christians are to be productive.
Look at verse 10, bearing fruit in every good work . . . Now listen to me. You and I will produce some kind of fruit in our lives. We will either bear good fruit or evil fruit. We will bear some kind of fruit. To bear fruit implies some kind of involvement. Now let me ask you. In the years you have lived, as you look back, what has your life produced? You may not want to think about that; but you and I need to think about it. Paul prayed that their lives would produce fruit in every good work. He prayed their lives would be productive. There is a reason you are here on earth. You were not placed on this earth just to take up space. Jesus Christ came to this earth to live His life in us and through us to produce His good works on this earth.
Turn with me to Ephesians 2:10, For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. The normal, natural Christian life is a life of fruit bearing. It isn’t in our effort that we are Christians. If Christ is at the center of our lives, it is He who is bearing fruit. Let me ask you. What is the fruit of your life? What do you look around and see that is the result of your having lived all these years?
Notice Paul says, that you may bear fruit in every good work . . . How do you bear fruit in every good work? You allow the Lord Jesus Christ who is living His life within you to do it in His strength and power.
The truth is, we are all bearing some kind of fruit. We all have borne fruit in our lives which we wish no one had picked. You see, we are all living lives which are bearing fruit of some sort. If someone picks the fruit from your life, will they want to be like you, will they want to know the Lord Jesus Christ, will they want to know His will for their life? Your conduct, your conversation and your character are the fruit of your life. This is what people are seeing and hearing. You may say you are a Christian and people check the fruit. You can say that you don’t believe in fruit inspectors; but, brother, they are out there. The whole world is checking out the fruit of those who call themselves “believers.”
If we continue to live our lives as we are living them, will the return on our lives be everything we want it to be? Will the return be only in temporal things or will the return be in eternal things? What are we investing our lives in that will last beyond this life? Life is marching on. There is nothing we can do that will stop it. Time is running out. We had better get on with investing our lives to bear fruit in every good work. Nothing would please Satan more than to get us off-track from what God wants us to do with our lives.
D. PRAY THAT THEY WILL GROW IN THE PERSONAL KNOWLEDGE OF GOD
I believe the goal of every person’s life should be to know God. If I were guessing, I would say that very few people, when they are setting goals for their lives, set a goal to know God better every day. Listen, all worldly goals should look less attractive when compared to the goal of knowing God. Yes, it is important to set goals. I do that; all of them seem insignificant when I compare them to the goal of knowing God better today than I knew Him yesterday, and to know Him better this year than I knew Him last year. There can be no greater goal for the Christian.
Can you think of a better prayer for your children, for you wife or husband than, “Lord, may my son know You, may he increase in wisdom and knowledge of who You are?” “May my daughter understand who You are.” “May my wife know You.” “I pray that I may know You in a way that I have never known You before.” I am not talking about knowing facts about the Bible. I am not talking about memorizing Scripture and knowing it. I am talking about increasing and growing in the knowledge of God.
If I did not know you and I wanted to know you better, you and I would have to share our joys and our hurts--share how we feel about certain things. Share about the things we have learned in life. If we did that, this would happen. The more we shared with each other, the more intimate we would become in our friendship and fellowship with each other. The more intimate we became, the more we would know each other. Before you know it, we would know how the other one felt about something before it would come about.
Did you know that God wants to build an intimate relationship with you and me? Listen, for some reason we think that we are down here and God is out there some where. That is not how it is. You see, He came in the person of His Son Jesus Christ in order that through His Spirit He might have intimacy with all of us. It is possible to know Him far beyond what the world will ever know about Him. The world does not understand what we are talking about when we say “knowing God.” The only way to know Him is to get in this Book and experience the truth. When you apply the knowledge you have and start living that knowledge, the more God will reveal to you. Why should He pour more knowledge into someone who does not want to have a closer walk with Him? The way you will grow in your closeness to God tomorrow is to obey Him today. Obey Him again and again. As we obey Him in the simple things, the more the intimacy grows. If I could only pray one prayer for my family it would be, “God give us an increasing knowledge of who You are.”
E. PRAY THAT THEY WILL BE FILLED WITH THE POWER OF GOD
Look at verse 11, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience . . . The word for strengthened is the word “Dunamas.” In other words we have God’s power. He says it again in “All Power.”
If you and I were to pray for someone else, and we prayed that person would experience the super natural power of God in his or her life for living. That prayer would have power. When the power of God is living in us, it gives us not only power for living, but also power of influence. The only way we can live our lives in a way that is productive and praiseworthy is through God’s power. We can’t live in this world in our own strength. It is impossible because God never intended for us to live that way. Paul’s prayer for the believers of Colosse was that they would live in God’s power to have great endurance and patience.
When things are going well, we don’t see a great urgency for this kind of prayer. Sometimes we act as though that we don’t need God until things begin to fall apart. Then we need God to give us the power to endure and be patient. The time to pray this prayer is not when things get tough and out of control. We need to pray this prayer before everything goes hay wire, that way we will be ready with God’s power.
What would happen if we prayed every single day for someone to experience the living power of God in his or her life: “Lord, today I want my friend to be strengthened with all power according to Your glorious might so that he/she might have great endurance and patience . . .” Why do you think Paul used the words “endurance and patience?” Here’s the reason. Paul knew the Colossian Christians lived in a heathen society just like we do.
What would happen if we prayed for someone to experience the super natural power of God for endurance and patience? The words used for “endurance” is “to bear up under the weight and pressure of a given situation and not give in regardless of what is going on.” Endurance and patience mean hanging in there without revenge or retaliation when someone is persecuting you. Every person in this Sanctuary is going through some sort of difficulty. What would happen to this church if all of us had someone reading this passage and calling our name and claiming that verse for us? It would be a great prayer. If you are walking in the center of God’s will, you are going to catch it from all sides. If you think the world is going to do back flips in joy because you are trying to live your life for Christ, you have another thing coming. If you think, when you start trying to live your life for Christ, that the devil will leave you along, you have another thing coming. This is why we need super natural power in our lives. This is why we cannot live our lives successfully without Christ living in us. Paul says God wants us to pray for someone that the power of the Holy Spirit within that person’s life will equip him or her to live their life victoriously. Friends, I know a lot of people who need that prayer prayed for them. This is what intercessory prayer is all about.
If we all prayed this prayer for someone daily, the world would be changed. This church would be changed. You would be changed. We all would be changed into the person God wants us to be. This is a prayer that can change lives.
Would you pray this prayer for me? Ask someone to pray it for you.
