Purposeful Prayer
Colossians 1:9-12
In Paul’s letter to the Colossians, he intends for his readers to know the preeminence and sufficiency of our Lord Jesus Christ in all things so that they would live Christ-centered lives. Last time, we saw that Paul gave thanks to God for the Colossians’ faith and love, because of the hope which they heard and believed in the gospel (Col. 1:3-8). Now, in Colossians 1:9-12, Paul continues praying for this church, moving from thanking God for the work of the gospel to praying for their spiritual growth in Christ.
When you pray, who do you pray for, and what do you pray for? If God answered “yes” to all the prayers you prayed this last week, what would God have done? Would His kingdom be advanced? Would the lost be saved? Would you and other believers be more like Christ? Would our church be more fruitful? Would we know God more deeply? Would we live to please the Lord? Would we be stronger in the face of trouble? Would we be more assured of our salvation?
Paul is writing this letter to the Colossian Christians while he is in prison. Paul had not even met many of these believers, and yet here we find him praying for their spiritual growth. In our passage, Paul gives the reason why he prays for them, the nature of his prayers, the request that he makes to God for them, the desired outcome of that prayer, and the means by which God will fulfill it. When we live Christ-centered lives, we will desire others to know Christ, and we will pray for their spiritual progress in Christ-likeness. By studying Paul’s prayer today, I want us to be encouraged to pray for one another’s spiritual growth.
First, let’s consider …
1. Prayer’s Perseverance
Paul begins this prayer section by pointing back to what prompted his prayers: “For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you” (Col. 1:9). Remember that Epaphras, who was actually from Colossae and was the one that had brought the gospel to the people there, had come to Rome and told Paul all about the work of God among them. Their faith in God, their love for all the saints, and their hope in heaven because of the gospel prompted Paul to pray for even more spiritual progress for them. Paul was thankful to God for what the gospel had begun in them. And in light of the serious theological dangers this church was facing, he prayed without ceasing for that work of God to flourish.
The word for praying points to the general privilege of prayer and lays stress on prayer as an act of worship and devotion to God. The idea of “unceasing” prayer is common in Paul’s writings (Rom. 1:9; Phil. 1:4; 1 Thess. 2:13; 2 Tim. 1:3, etc.). In 1 Thessalonians 5:17, Paul commands us to “pray without ceasing.” In Colossians 4:2 Paul instructs this church to “Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving.” This is what Paul did for them. Paul lived in a state of prayer continually. Everything and everyone that entered his path or crossed his mind, he took to God in prayer. Couldn’t you do that?
John MacArthur has tremendous insights on how to do this practically. He says praying without ceasing means to,
view everything in life in relation to God. For example, if we meet someone, we immediately consider where they stand with God. If we hear of something bad happening, we react by praying for God to act in the situation because we know He cares. If we hear of something good that has happened, we respond with immediate praise to God for it because we know He is glorified.[1]
We can live a lifestyle of constant prayer when we see God at work in everything. We can see Him in our eating, drinking, and our studying, prompting us to constant prayer. This is prayers persistence, to pray without ceasing. But what did Paul pray for? Here we see …
2. Prayer’s Petition
Look at Colossans 1:9 again, “For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.” Did you see the request Paul makes for them? He is desiring and asking for one thing for them: “that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will.” That is the heart and soul of this prayer. Paul is praying that the Colossians will know the will of God. All the rest of the prayer builds off of this one request. It’s the request Jesus taught us to pray in the Lord’s prayer, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” (Matt. 6:10 KJV).
The idea of being “filled” here is to be completely filled up, abound, be liberally supplied, to have the soul permeated with it. The verb is in the passive voice, meaning that as believers we do not fill ourselves, the Spirit of God fills us. In Ephesians 5 Paul commands the church to “be filled with the Spirit,” resulting in “speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord” (Eph. 5:18,19). The parallel passage in Colossians 3 says,
16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. (Col 3:16).
Did you see the parallel? To be filled with the Spirit is the same as letting the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom. To be filled with the knowledge of God’s will is to have the word of Christ dwelling in you and controlling you by His Holy Spirit.
What comes to your mind when you hear the statement, “he was filled with fear?” Don’t you envision a man so controlled and motivated by fear that his every move and action is the product of that fear? Likewise, the knowledge of God’s will is to so pervade all our being that it controls all our thoughts, affections, purposes, and plans. The more of the mind of Christ we have, the more God can bring His control into our lives.
The false teachers who had infiltrated the Colossian church may have been emphasizing how their teachings would bring you fullness of knowledge. But Paul emphasizes the theme of fullness in Christ by repeatedly using the words “all” or “every”: “all wisdom and spiritual understanding” (Col. 1:9); “fully pleasing Him,” literally, “to all pleasing” (Col. 1:10); “being fruitful in every (or all) good work” (Col. 1:10); “strengthened with all might” (Col. 1:11); and, “for all patience and longsuffering” (Col. 1:11). In Colossians 2, Paul will say that in Christ “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 2:3), that “in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Col. 2:9), and that “you are complete in Him” (Col. 2:10). Paul says his purpose in preaching Christ and “warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom,” is that he may, “present every man perfect in Christ Jesus” (Col. 1:28). He wants us to know that every spiritual need that we have is to be found fully in Christ. So why go elsewhere?[2]
What is the will of God, and how do we know it? God’s will is not some big secret. He has revealed His will and recorded it for us in scripture. The essence of the content of this prayer was that the Colossians might understand God’s truth, and upon understanding it, apply God’s truth to their lives. God has made it very clear in His word what His will is for us.
Specifically, Paul prays that they would be filled with the knowledge of God’s will “in all wisdom and spiritual understanding” (Col. 1:9). “Spiritual” is emphatic by position and applies both to “wisdom” and “understanding.” Spiritual wisdom and understanding come from God’s Spirit and stand in contrast to the worldly wisdom of the false teachers (Col. 2:23).
“Wisdom”, as Paul means it, isn’t something mystical or merely intellectual. It’s something very practical. Miichael has been teaching us about wisdom from the book of Proverbs. The main idea behind the Hebrew concept of wisdom is “skill.” The Hebrew word for wisdom is used by Moses to describe the men who skillfully construct the tabernacle according to God’s plan (Exod. 31:3, 6; 36:1-2). Just as a skilled carpenter can take a piece of rough wood and shape it according to a plan into a beautiful and useful piece of furniture, so the wise person is able to take the rough elements of life and shape them according to God’s plan into something beautiful and useful to Him.[3]
“Wisdom” refers to knowing how God’s Word commands us to live, whereas “understanding” is the ability to put together facts and information, to see the relationships between different things in life and to draw the proper conclusions. It is the insight into the word of God that allows us to determine truth from error and right from wrong. Understanding is what enables the believer to identify a theology as being false such as a denial of the deity or humanity of Jesus or the advocation of legalistic rules to enhance spirituality. Paul will deal with these particular issues later in this letter.
This is the heart of Paul’s prayer, that we might be filled to overflowing with the knowledge of God’s will with Spirit-led insight to skillfully applying God’s word to our daily lives.
That is prayer’s petition, Paul’s one request for them. Next we see …
3. Prayer’s Purpose
Paul has only one purpose in mind. This purpose is the necessary result of being filled with the knowledge of God’s will. Here is the purpose: “that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him” (Col. 1:10). The reason why Paul prays for the Colossians to be filled with the knowledge of God’s will is not just knowledge for knowledge’s sake. No, the whole purpose of this prayer is that they may live a life worthy of the Lord and please Him in every way. Knowledge of God’s will must lead to a worthy walk. The result of all biblical knowledge should be godly conduct.
Notice that Paul describes our Christian life as a “walk”. That implies steady, deliberate, step by step growth in understanding through God’s Word. It’s also a walk that is “worthy of the Lord.” Paul is not saying that we can earn the pleasure of the Lord by our behavior. He is urging us to walk in a way that would bring honor to the Lord. This worthy walk should be one that is “fully pleasing Him” or literally, “to all pleasing”. This describes the attitude that drives our actions. We want to have a worthy walk that pleases God in all ways.
Ray Pritchard[i] illustrated this point by telling the story of Rick Husband. He was the commander of the space shuttle Columbia that disintegrated reentering the atmosphere over Texas in January 2003. Before the shuttle took off on January 16, Rick had stopped the crew and prayed for them. Before the flight, he left a recorded devotional video for each of his two children for each of the 17 days he would be gone. That was 34 videos that he recorded so his children would not miss the daily devotions they had with their dad. In a video made for his home church in Houston, he explained the values of his life: “If I ended up at the end of my life having been an astronaut, but having sacrificed my family along the way or living my life in a way that didn’t glorify God, then I would look back on it with great regret. Having become an astronaut would not really have mattered all that much. And I finally came to realize that what really meant the most to me was to try and live my life the way God wanted me to and to try and be a good husband to Evelyn and to be a good father to my children.”
After the shuttle disaster, his pastor in Houston visited with Evelyn Husband. She showed the pastor documents Rick had to sign in case something tragic happened on the mission and he did not return home. The documents contained personal messages to his family members. At the bottom of the documents, Husband wrote a special note to his pastor that said, “Tell them about Jesus. He means everything to me.” Rick Husband lived a life worthy of the Lord. No doubt he has heard these words, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of the Lord.”
When we want what God wants, when we surrender our will and our agenda, when His purposes become our purposes, then our lives will be dramatically changed, and we will find significance in everything that happens to us. Life becomes an adventure with God every day. When that happens, our lives become joyful, visibly different, and eternally significant. And God is pleased with us.
4. Prayer’s Progress
Paul goes on to share four qualities of this life that is worthy of God and fully pleasing to Him. They are: 1) bearing fruit in every good work, 2) increasing in the knowledge of God, 3) being strengthened with God’s power, and 4) joyfully giving thanks for your salvation.
a. Bearing Fruit in Good Work
Colossians 1:10 again says, “that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work …” Fruit is what God producing through us as we know Him and do His will. As Jesus taught (John 15:5), “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” The life of Christ flowing through us produces good works as we stay vitally connected to Him. Christian fruit generally consists of Christlike character (the fruit of the Spirit, Gal. 5:22-23), Christlike conduct, and Christlike converts.
Last time we saw in Colossians 1:6 that the gospel was bringing forth fruit and increasing, now Paul prays that they would be bearing fruit and increasing. God has already begun this good work in them through the gospel. Now he is carrying it on to completion. Notice that we are to bear fruit in every good work, in all things – whether at work or at home, at school or in service at the church. God wants you to be a fruitful believer.
b. Growing in Knowledge of God
The second quality of a worth walk that pleases God is “increasing in the knowledge of God” (Col. 1:10). Once again, this is not a secret knowledge of known only to a few, but rather the revealed knowledge of God available to everyone through His word. This phrase may mean that we are growing to know God better. Or, it could mean that we are growing by knowing God better. Either way, there is the idea that we must know God Himself.
As a parent, it pleases me when my children want to spend time with me so that they can know me better. Similarly, we please God when we desire to spend time with Him in His Word so that we can know Him better. Knowing God is inseparable from knowing His will (Col. 1:9) and obedience to His will (Col. 1:10). Jesus said, “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.” (John 14:21). Do you want to know God more? Do what He tells you to do. Obey His word and you will know Him more, love Him more, and please Him in every way. If we are not obedient to what God has revealed about Himself and His will, why should He reveal any more to us?
Charles Spurgeon gave this advice:
If you read and study, and cannot make out the meaning of Scripture, get up and do something—and it may be, in the doing of it, you shall discover the secret. Holiness of heart shall increase the illumination of your mind.[4]
A worthy walk is one that is increasing in the knowledge of God.
c. Being Strengthened for Endurance
The third quality of a worthy walk that pleases God is being “… strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering …” (Col. 1:11). If you’re going to live a life worthy of the Lord and if you’re going to live in a way that is pleasing to him, you’re going to need strength for the journey.
Being strengthened carries the sense of “being continually strengthened.” In other words, this is not like a booster rocket, where you get an initial thrust and then the rest of the way you’re on your own. No, God continues to give you strength throughout your entire Christian life. Notice that God doesn’t just give you “some” power, but you are strengthened with “all might.” God will give you everything you need to live the Christ-centered life. Paul says this power from God is “according to His glorious power.” That word “power” refers to God’s mighty ruling power over the whole universe. God and His amazing power are the source of your strength, so you will never run out of the power you need to live this life that is worthy of God.
What is the result of being continually strengthened with all might according to His glorious power? What does it look like to be strengthened with God’s power? Does it mean you are constantly seeing miracles and healings or seeing dramatic wonders of God in answer to your prayers? That’s not what Paul show us. He says this glorious power of God is “for all patience and longsuffering with joy” (Col. 1:11). Listen, you don’t need patience and longsuffering if God always miraculously delivers you in every situation. You need patience, which means endurance in trials, and you need longsuffering, which means bearing with difficult people, when there are no immediate miraculous deliverances![5] Paul prays that the Colossians would be strengthened with God’s power so that they may display great endurance and patience.
Life is hard. You are going to go through many trials. You may even face persecution for your faith. You are going to be tempted to do the wrong thing. And so if we are going to live a life worthy of the Lord that pleases him in every way, we need to pray for each other for God’s strength in our lives.
d. Giving Thanks for Salvation
The phrase “with joy” at the end of Colossians 1:11 can either go with “patience and longsuffering” or with “giving thanks” in Colossians 1:12. Either way, the point is that when we deal with trying situations and difficult people, we please God if we don’t grumble, but rather are filled with joyous thanksgiving to Him. We live in a time when grumbling and complaining has become a national pastime. Joyful and thankful people are rare. They stand out like bright lights in this dark world. Listen to what Paul writes in Philippians 2,
14 Do all things without complaining and disputing, 15 that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, (Phil. 2:14-15).
How can we be joyfully thankful in this dark world? Look at what Paul writes in Colossians 1:12, “giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.” We will be joyfully thankful when we remember that the Father “has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.”
Paul is talking here about God’s grace in bringing about our salvation. If we’re thankful for that, then we’ll have reason to be thankful for everything else! He says that the Father has given us an inheritance that we share with all the saints in the light. We all have Christ in us and enjoy His full salvation. Individually, we’ve been given gifts to use for the common good. And, we should pass this spiritual heritage down to our children and grandchildren. They should see our joy in the Lord, even when we go through trials, and want to experience the same blessings that we enjoy.[6]
Notice that it is the Father who has “qualified” us to be partakes of this inheritance. We don’t have salvation because we deserve it as a right or because we have earned it by our good works. No, the Father Himself has qualified us by His grace through what Christ has done for us on the cross. It’s all about what God has done. Look at Colossians 1:13-14,
13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, 14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. (Col. 1:13-14).
One of the most important indicators of your spiritual growth is that you joyfully give thanks to God for your salvation. We have been saved by grace, and so we give thanks to God who has an inheritance waiting for us in the kingdom of light.
If you stand back and look at it, this is an amazing work of God’s grace. Knowing the will of God results in a worthy walk that fully pleases God—a life filled with good works, an ever-growing knowledge of God, the ability to endure hard times with joy, and a thankful spirit for all that God has done for you. Is that you? I’m praying that it is. Are you praying that for me and for each other?
Listen, if all this just seems so foreign to your experience, perhaps you have not really known God through Christ. Has He rescued you from the domain of darkness so that you live right now in the kingdom of the Son of His love?
Here’s how: Come to Jesus. Repent and leave your life of sin that has condemned you. Believe that Jesus died for your sins and was raised to make you right with God. Trust in Him alone. Come to Jesus. The old hymn says it so powerfully,
Out of my bondage, sorrow and night,
Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come;
into Thy freedom, gladness and light,
Jesus, I come to Thee.
Out of my sickness into Thy health,
out of my want and into Thy wealth,
out of my sin and into Thyself,
Jesus, I come to Thee.[7]
[1] John MacArthur, MacArthur New Testament Commentary, Colossians & Philemon, Moody Publishers, Chicago, p. 27.
[2] Steven Cole, Lesson 3: What Spiritual Growth Looks Like (Colossians 1:9-12), https://bible.org/seriespage/lesson-3-what-spiritual-growth-looks-colossians-19-12.
[3] Cole, ibid.
[i] Ray Pritchard, https://www.keepbelieving.com/sermon/How-to-Pray-with-Power/
[4] Spurgeon, ibid.
[5] Cole, ibid.
[6] Cole, ibid.
[7] W. T. Sleeper, Jesus, I Come, Public Domain (1887). https://hymnary.org/hymn/BH2008/439.
