SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/27/2016 8:13 PM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-1 “The Petition”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Colossians 1:9
Message of the verses: “9 For this reason also, since the day we heard
of it, we have not ceased
to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of
His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,”
Now we have to go back and look at verse eight “and he also informed us of your love in the Spirit,” and this talks about the favorable report that Paul had received from Epaphras about the Colossian church. So we see that since Paul got this report that he was praying for the Colossian people. Perhaps one may think that because this church was doing well that Paul may not want to pray for them, but if they were not doing well that he would then want to pray for them. The truth is that Paul wanted to continue to pray for them that they would continue to do well as they were growing up in the Lord. One of my new favorite verses comes from 2 Thessalonians 3:1 where Paul is actually asking that church to pray for him, but as you look at this verse you realize that Paul was complementing them for the good things that they were doing and in the beginning of the book as was his custom he said that he was praying for them “Finally, brethren, pray for us that the word of the Lord will spread rapidly and be glorified, just as it did also with you.” One of the things that perhaps we forget to do when we learn that the Lord has answered our prayers is to thank and praise Him for the answered prayer.
John MacArthur writes the following about unceasing or recurring prayer: “Such unceasing or recurring prayer (1 Thess. 5:17) demands first of all an attitude of God-consciousness. That does not mean to be constantly in the act of verbal prayer, but to view everything in life in relation to God. For example, if we hear of something good that has happened, we respond with immediate praise to God for it because we know He is glorified. When Paul looked about his world, everything he saw prompted him to prayer in some way. When he thought of or heard about one of his beloved churches, it moved him toward communion with God.” I hope this paragraph helps us understand what 1 Thess. 5:17 means, and it goes along with what Dr. Wiersbe had to say about that verse when he wrote that this verse means to a believer that we are to keep the phone off the hook to God so we can talk to Him at a moment’s notice in both prayer and praise.
Nehemiah is a wonderful example of one who was praying without ceasing for his heart was broken over the fact that the city of Jerusalem and the temple there was in ruins and we are led to believe that he prayed often for that and so when he was sand in the presence of the king the king asked him why he was sad. Even though this was not looking good Nehemiah had prayed for the Lord to let him go to Jerusalem and this was the answer to his prayers as the king would send him there. “Then the king said to me, "What would you request?" So I prayed to the God of heaven (Neh. 2:4).”
There is a
second aspect of unceasing prayer and that is we have to be consciousness of
what is going on in the lives of people around us. This is a good reason to read the prayer
letters of missionaries so we can pray intelligently for them. Later on Paul would write to them “Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert
in it with an attitude of thanksgiving (Col. 4:2).” He wrote the following to the Ephesians “With all prayer and petition pray at all
times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all
perseverance and petition for all the saints (Eph. 6:18).”
MacArthur adds “The two elements of praying without ceasing came together in Paul’s prayer life. His love for God led him to seek unbroken communion with Him. His love for people drove him to unceasing prayer on their behalf. The prayers of Paul recorded in his letters are a precious legacy. They reveal his heart and are models for us to emulate. This text records the first of those prayers.”
12/27/2016 8:44 PM
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