What should I pray today?

Colossians 1:9-12

9For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. 10And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully 12giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you[d] to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.

A question that keeps arising for me is ‘what and how am I supposed to pray, for myself and for others’? Here we find an answer to that question.

If I’m honest with myself, so many of my prayers tend to be self serving and ‘surfacey’. “God help me have a good day, God help me be safe, God help me find a parking place…anyway you get the idea”. My prayers need to take on a different nature, “God fill me, and those about me with the knowledge of Your Will through all spiritual wisdom and understand”. The purpose of this prayer is pretty precise “that I, we, might live a life worthy of the Lord and please Him in every way. Wow. That’s intense. Paul’s situation I think helped him to cut to the chase. He’s sitting in prison chained to guard, and receiving reports of people that he lead to Christ being persecuted and put to death. He’s not imprisoned for doing bad things, or disobeying God. He’s done, said and behaved as God wanted him to and it’s landed him in trouble and he’s thinking about ‘how can I be pleasing to God in this’? Think about that for more a minute. Is the goal of my life, to live in a way that is pleasing to the Lord in every way – regardless of the circumstance? I’m afraid our orientation is largely living in a way that is pleasing to me, and God will have to understand and accept my wisdom. The only way that I can hope to break out of my self-centred living is if God empowers me with all strength and power according to His glorious might. My will is pretty strong. But consider the result of living His way; bearing good fruit, growing in knowledge, gaining strength, patience and joy.

We together are a part of a great calling. God has chosen you to be part of the ministry of Christian Horizons. Our greatest impact will be as we pray this prayer for ourselves, each other, and the persons whom we have been called to serve.

Anyway, I was just thinking.

Neil

Ps. We’re presently attempting to determine if this blog is being effective. If you’d be willing to take a moment a give a quick response to ministry@christian-horizons.org to let us know your thoughts on the matter that would be greatly appreciated.