More Than an Answer
“For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and 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 giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people 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.” — Colossians 1:9-14 (NIV)
There are certain prayers in Scripture that make me reconsider the contents of my own prayer life. Not because asking God for jobs, relationships, healing, provision, direction, or the approximately fourteen other things currently occupying our brains is wrong. God tells us to bring our requests to Him. But then you read the way Paul prays for other Christians and realize his prayer list looks a little different.
In Colossians 1, Paul tells the believers in Colossae,
“Since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you” (Colossians 1:9, NIV).
And what follows is one of those Spirit-inspired prayers scattered throughout Paul’s letters that gives us an incredible picture of what God desires for His people.
Paul prays that they would be filled “with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives” (Colossians 1:9, NIV).
Which sounds excellent. Sign us all up!
Who doesn’t want to know God’s will? In fact, we tend to be extremely interested in God’s will when it comes to the decisions directly affecting our lives. Which job? Which city? Which relationship? Which opportunity? Should I stay? Should I go? Could You possibly send the answer in writing by 3:00 p.m.?
But Paul’s prayer for knowing God’s will isn’t primarily about receiving instructions for a decision.
Look at the next verse. He asks that they would know God’s will “so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way” (Colossians 1:10, NIV).
Paul connects knowing with living.
Biblical wisdom isn’t simply accumulating enough information about God to become very impressive at Bible trivia. The point of knowing God’s will is that His truth increasingly shapes the way we actually live. The more we know God, the more our lives should begin to look like lives belonging to Him.
Paul then gives us a picture of what that growth looks like: “bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God” (Colossians 1:10, NIV).
Spiritual growth can be difficult to measure because unfortunately no one puts us against a doorframe every six months and draws a little line labeled spiritual maturity. It would certainly simplify things.
So we tend to substitute measurements we can see. How often do I go to church? How much Scripture do I know? How many Christian books have I read? How many ministries am I involved in? How many highlighted verses are currently living in my Bible?
Those things can absolutely accompany spiritual growth. But none of them necessarily prove it. Paul’s picture is much deeper. We increasingly know God, and knowing Him produces fruit in the way we live.
Jesus describes that relationship in John 15:5:
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing” (NIV).
Fruit is not something a branch produces by trying extremely hard to look fruitful. It grows because the branch remains connected to its source of life.
The same is true of us - Christian growth isn’t a self-improvement project with Jesus attached to it. We don’t grit our teeth and manufacture Christlike character through enough discipline. We abide in Christ, depend on His Spirit, know Him through His Word, obey what He says, and gradually His life produces fruit in ours.
Then Paul gets to verse 11, and this is where his prayer becomes especially interesting.
He asks that the Colossians would be “strengthened with all power according to his glorious might” (Colossians 1:11, NIV).
Now that sounds dramatic...All power. Glorious might. Surely we’re about to get something spectacular. Miraculous deliverance? Mountains moving? Enemies defeated? Fire from heaven? At minimum, something deserving of a cinematic soundtrack.
Paul continues: “so that you may have great endurance and patience” (Colossians 1:11, NIV).
Oh...Patience.
All the glorious might of Almighty God and Paul is praying that Christians would be empowered to...keep going.
That can sound almost anticlimactic until you’ve actually needed endurance.
It doesn’t take supernatural strength to endure something for five minutes when you know exactly how and when it will end. Endurance becomes necessary when the trial is still there tomorrow. And the next day. And three months later. Patience becomes necessary when people remain difficult, circumstances remain unresolved, prayers remain unanswered, and God does not appear particularly interested in following the timeline we thoughtfully prepared for Him.
That is exactly where Paul says God’s power meets us.
We sometimes assume experiencing God’s power means being removed from difficult circumstances. Certainly God can deliver miraculously, and Scripture is filled with moments when He does. But Colossians 1 gives us another picture of divine power: God can display His strength by giving us what we need to remain faithful when the circumstance does not change.
Paul makes a similar point elsewhere when he describes pleading with God to remove his “thorn in the flesh.” God’s answer is not removal but,
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9, NIV).
Sometimes God’s power changes the situation. Sometimes God’s power sustains us through it. And we should be careful not to call the second one less miraculous. Because enduring with faith when we are tired requires grace. Remaining patient when we’d really prefer to control the outcome requires grace. Continuing to obey when obedience has not made life easier requires grace. And Paul adds something even more challenging: this endurance and patience are accompanied by joyful thanksgiving (Colossians 1:11–12, NIV).
Not merely fine, I’ll survive this.
Joy. Thanksgiving.
Paul is not asking believers to become strangely enthusiastic about suffering. Christian joy has never required pretending difficult things are delightful. His reason for thanksgiving appears immediately afterward, and it isn’t their circumstances.
They give “joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light” (Colossians 1:12, NIV).
Notice who did the qualifying - The Father.
Paul doesn’t say, Try very hard to become qualified. He doesn’t tell them to grow enough, serve enough, obey enough, or bear enough fruit until God finally decides they have earned a spot among His people.
God “has qualified” them.
Then Paul keeps going: “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” (Colossians 1:13–14, NIV).
Look at the verbs : God has qualified us. God has rescued us. God has brought us into Christ’s kingdom. In Christ, we have redemption. We have forgiveness.
Before Paul talks about the Christian life we are called to live, he anchors us in what God has already done.
We do not live lives worthy of the Lord so that He will rescue us. We seek to live lives worthy of Him **because He already has. **We do not bear fruit to earn an inheritance. The Father has already qualified us to share in it. We do not grow spiritually hoping that eventually God will accept us. In Christ, we have already been transferred out of darkness, brought into His kingdom, redeemed and forgiven.
Grace comes first - Growth follows.
That protects spiritual maturity from becoming just another achievement system. We can turn almost anything into an achievement system if given enough time, including Christianity. Read more. Pray better. Serve harder. Know more. Produce more fruit. Be more patient. And suddenly the beautiful prayer in Colossians 1 becomes another list of ways we suspect we’re failing.
Paul gives us the opposite picture.
The Christian life begins with a God who rescues people who cannot rescue themselves. Then the same God who saved us supplies the wisdom, understanding, fruitfulness, strength, endurance, patience and joy we need to grow into the life He has called us to live.
Which means maybe this prayer deserves a place in our own lives. For ourselves, yes, but also for the people we love.
We can pray for the job interview and also pray, Lord, fill them with spiritual wisdom and understanding.
We can pray for someone’s circumstances to change and also pray, Strengthen them with Your glorious might so they can endure faithfully while they wait.
We can pray for healing and provision and open doors while also asking God to make us people who increasingly know Him, bear fruit, endure with joy and live in grateful awareness of everything Christ has already done.
Because sometimes we become so focused on asking God to change our lives that we forget to ask Him to change us. And apparently, that kind of transformation requires all the glorious power of God.
Thankfully, He has plenty.
bytaylormcgee
