We Have Not Ceased To Pray For You Series

Introduction

I want to begin by asking: If God has already saved you, what should you pray for?

If you are a Christian, you read your Bible daily.

If you are a Christian, you pray daily.

If you are a Christian, you presumably have a prayer list.

And so I ask again: If God has already saved you, what should you pray for?

We are studying Paul’s letter to the Colossians.

Paul wrote to the Christians in Colossae from his prison confinement in Rome in about 62 AD.

He wrote to the Christians because he wanted to correct the false teaching that was beginning to circulate in this young church, less than 10 years old.

After greeting the Colossian Christians and thanking God for them, Paul assured them that he and his coworkers had not ceased praying for them.

Scripture

Let’s read Colossians 1:9-14:

9 And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Lesson

Colossians 1:9-14 teaches us that because believers are in Christ, we must pray to be filled with the knowledge of his will so we can walk worthily of the Lord.

Let us use the following outline:

1. The Content of Prayer (1:9)

2. The Purpose of Prayer (1:10-12)

3. The Basis of Prayer (1:13-14)

I. The Content of Prayer (1:9)

First, notice the content of prayer.

Paul tells the Colossian Christians the content of his prayer for them.

He says in verse 9, “And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.”

Paul prayed that the Colossians would have Spirit-given knowledge of God’s will.

God speaks to his people through his word.

Many Christians today want God to bless what they want to do, instead of submitting to what God has revealed in his word about what they should do.

William Barclay has rightly said:

“It so often happens that in prayer we are really saying: ‘Your will be changed’ when we ought to be saying: ‘Your will be done.’ The ?rst objective of prayer is not so much to speak to God as to listen to him” (William Barclay, The Letters to Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians, 3rd ed. fully rev. and updated, The New Daily Study Bible [Louisville, KY; London: Westminster John Knox Press, 2003], 125).

Take a look at what you pray for.

Do you ask God to bless your circumstances?

Do you ask God to give you certain things?

There is a place for praying for our daily bread.

But notice that is not where Paul starts.

Paul teaches us to pray that we would have Spirit-given knowledge of God’s will.

Why should we pray for Spirit-given knowledge of God’s will?

Have you come across a person who professes to be a Christian?

That person seems to know the Bible really well.

That person can quote chapter and verse for all kinds of situations.

But in reality, that person doesn’t live very differently from a person who does not profess to be a Christian.

That person uses God’s name in vain.

That person fudges the truth.

That person says things about others that would never be said in their presence.

Paul does not want a knowledge of God’s will for its own sake.

Paul wants knowledge of God’s will that changes how we live.

II. The Purpose of Prayer (1:10-11)

Second, the purpose of prayer.

Paul tells the Colossians the purpose of his prayer for them.

He says in verse 10a that the reason he prays that they will have a Spirit-given knowledge of God’s will is “so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him.”

Paul wants the Christians in Colossae to know God’s will.

But, even more important, he wants them to do God’s will.

Paul wants the Christians to live for the Lord.

In that culture, Christians stood out as they lived wholeheartedly for the Lord.

It is no different today.

Some people profess Christ, but they do not possess Christ.