Prayer Cards - Unceasingly For Spiritual Growth

 

Colossians 1:9

For this cause, we also, since the day we heard it,

do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that you

might be filled with the knowledge of His will

in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.

    In the beginning of this book Paul is writing to the young church in Colosse, which is being built by Epaphras, commending them for the good report he has received of them. The 'we' refers to Timothy, who traveled and ministered with Paul while he was in Roman custody. 

    Though Paul had never met the saints in Colosse, their reputation as faithful servants of Christ, reached his ears. Even as he writes to encourage them in their fruitfulness, he also tells them how he and Timothy are praying for them:

    *Unceasingly

    *Filled with the knowledge of His will

        >In all wisdom 

        >Spiritual understanding

    Are we praying for each other in this way?  Unceasingly. Always. Without end.  Watchful. Alert to danger.

    Are we encouraging saints we have never met, and may never meet, to grow in wisdom and spiritual understanding? 

    Paul praises them for their obvious belief in God and the evidence of said belief in God: faith, hope and love, which are the hallmarks of any born-again Christian. For their faith in Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior of their lives and souls. 

    For their abounding love to all saints, not just the ones they know. For the love they show to the people around them, who are not saints, yet are being shown the true love of Christ by the Colosse church. [John 13:34 {agape}]. It is a mark of the grace of God that we are able to love the people around us, even if they are not Christians. For God loved the world, even when the world did not love Him back. [John 3:16-18] 

    For the hope they profess to others regarding the gospel of salvation. [Titus 2:3]. It is our faith in Christ, and our love for saints everywhere, that keeps our focus on our hope of heaven.  

    And then, he lets them know that he and Timothy are praying for them. Such encouragement! Someone they knew of but did not know personally was praying for them unceasingly! That's empowering to the soul of the saint. 

    But then he writes that he is praying that they would become more fruitful. First, that they would be filled with the knowledge of God's will. Even now every saint must first be filled with the knowledge of God's will so that we can obey God's will. The Word of God never changes, but the transforming power of God's Spirit will change us if we let Him, if we know God's will for us. [2 Peter 3:18].

    Secondly, Paul and Timothy are praying that this church would be filled with spiritual wisdom and spiritual understanding. This is vital to a saint's spiritual growth. It is not enough to know The Word, for many false prophets can quote Scripture but they speak it to their advantage, not to the increase of the kingdom of God. There are Biblical scholars who claim to know 'secrets' hidden The Word that cannot be revealed to those who do not believe as they believe. 

    Spiritual wisdom and spiritual understanding are not spirituality; spirituality has nothing to do with God or Christ Jesus or The Holy Spirit. Spirituality is evil and against God and His Administration. Spiritual wisdom and understanding are sought after by God's saints to increase God's kingdom. 

    Spiritual wisdom is discernment: having a God-given knowledge about who is telling the Truth and who is not; who is a faithful servant of Christ and who is not; what is Truth and what is not. [Proverbs 4:5-7; 2:10-11; Ephesians 1:17] 

    Spiritual understanding is a working knowledge of The Word of God. [Colossians 2:2-3]. It is a basic building block of a Christian's faith. We can memorize Scripture but unless we put what we are learning into action, it is just a block of information we keep sequestered in our memory bank. 

    We should desire, as Paul did, for all Christians, all saints, everywhere to be filled with Spirit-filled knowledge, Spirit-filled wisdom and Spirit-filled understanding. Let us pray for that to be fulfilled in us and in each other, unceasingly. 

LET US PRAY - Steven Curtis Chapman 

Abide With Me

1 Samuel 22:23 “Abide thou with me, fear not: for he that seeks my life seeks your life: but with me thou shalt be in safeguard.”

John 15:4-7,10-11 “(4) Abide in Me, and I and in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can you, except you abide in Me. (5) I am The Vine, you are the branches: He that abides in Me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit: for without Me you can do nothing. (6) If a man abide not in Me, he is cast fort as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. (7) If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you....(10) If you keep My commandments, you shall abide in My love; even as I have kept My Father's commandments, abide in His love. (11) These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.”

1 John 2:28 “And now, little children, abide in Him; that, when He shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.”

Abide: dwell, remain, settle, marry, continue to dwell in, inhabit in, bring again to place, remain, return; to stay in a given place, state, relation or expectancy, endure, be present, remain, dwell, be present, stand, tarry for.

(The first definitions are for the word 'abide' in The Old Testament and the second for The New Testament, regarding the three verses given)

     Do you realize as we have studied this together that all three Persons in the Trinity are referred to here? And that born again Christians are they who remain in the branch referred to in John 15? Living for Jesus and living in Jesus are the same. Just being a nice person or glorifying yourself with 'acts of kindness' are not growing you in Jesus. Once you become a born again Christian, it is up to you to open your Bible and read God's Word every day. Do you know that sometimes I get caught up in reading and studying I lose track of time? My husband's day begins at 5 am and ends at 9 pm. He leaves here at 5:30 am and gets back home around 4 pm. One day when I was deep study, he came home and I said, “What are you doing home so early?” and he just gave me a funny look, so I looked at the clock on my computer. Yup. It was 4 pm. His normal return home time. Eight hours of pure bliss had passed through the clock, but to me it was as if I had barely started. Those days are rare and deeply coveted.

     Abiding in Christ is a glorious way to go through life. No one's life is perfect. No one can obtain pure delight in their alone time unless they are alone with Jesus. Being alone by yourself without Jesus, in the chaos of your thoughts, can bring you down. But being alone with Jesus, chaos flees, for it doesn't stand a chance where the Light shines; chaos is darkness and death; Jesus is light and life.

     My life is not perfect, but my Savior is. It is His perfection that lives in me by faith, by believing on Him for my Lord and Savior. Every thing that Jesus Christ is, lives in me by faith in Him. I may not always let His light shine through, but every time I repent of this, I get stronger. I do not want to be cut off from The Branch, nor thrown into the fire. I read God's Word, and keep God's Word in my heart, and am actively applying God's Word to my life, including my family and my children in this, for they are in my life, too.

     Yes, you can memorize Scripture, either passages or individual verses; you can know all The Books of The Bible in order and still not know Jesus Christ. You can go to church, hear the preacher's sermon, and walk right out that door living the same old life you always lived. You have not changed because you have not listened, nor applied the message of salvation that was preached. Our actions determine our outcomes when we hear God's Word spoken or preached.

     If we feel a prick in our thoughts, or our heart, when we hear the message given, and do nothing, our hearts become harder and our ears deafer; we have only strengthened our resolve not to give in to weakness. For that is how some people view born again Christians, people too weak to stand on their own that they must need God to stand for them. Oh you fools! It is the weak God uses to bring down the fool. It is the weak God uses to reach the prideful, the annoyed, the depressed, the confused, the rich, the poor, the sanctimonious, the politician, the lobbyist, the doctor, the lawyer, the lost, the found. It is the weak in themselves who are strong in Christ. It is the weak who admit they are weak who come to the altar and kneel before God to repent of their wicked ways, their sins, and receive forgiveness from God and acceptance into His family. At that moment the weak become strong. For Jesus is now living in their hearts through their faith in and on Him. His blood has washed away the sins repented of and now the weak which you decry are made strong in Him who was crucified and rose from the grave.

     Abide in Him and Him only, as I and my family abide in Him and Him only. For each person who comes to God and believes on The Name of His Only Begotten Son Jesus Christ for salvation must work out their own after they believe. Which means you and I and every other believer must learn to live in Jesus. He already knows how to live in us, but we are learning to live in Him. This is why no two Christians are alike: each is responsible for their own growth, for seeking to grow in the things of God, for seeking to grow in The Word of God: searching His Word, in prayer and love, on how to be more like Jesus.

     Do you know God's perfect will for your life? Me, either. But I do know that God's first will for any one's life is be saved. 1 Timothy 2:4 “Who will have all men to be saved; and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.” So, what is truth? John 14:6 “And Jesus said unto them, “I am the way, the truth and the life: no man comes unto The Father but by Me.” Jesus is Truth. So, 'to come unto the knowledge of the truth', is to come to know Jesus, to believe Jesus, to learn to live in Jesus as He lives in us, when we believe.

     If you want to know God's will for your life after you are saved, then I expect you will study His Word. If you are not able to access a Bible where you live, while there are many Bible sites, I would recommend Bible Hub Library . This is the one my husband and I use to study with; it has more tools than I have on my bookshelf. And it's free to use by any one. As I walk through The Word in my study times, I will continue to share what I receive.