Colossians 4:2-4 – Steadfast Prayer

In today’s passage, Paul moves toward the conclusion of his letter to the church at Colossae and begins his conclusion with an encouragement to continue praying.

What is steadfast prayer?

First, let’s define prayer. John Piper tells this story about the definition of prayer.

There is a story about D. L. Moody making a visit to Scotland in the 1800′s and opening one of his talks at a local grade school with the rhetorical question, What is prayer? To his amazement, hundreds of children’s hands went up. So he decided to call on a lad near the front, who promptly stood up and said, “Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God, in the name of Christ, by the help of his Spirit, with confession of our sins, and thankful acknowledgment of his mercies.” This is the answer to question #78 in the Westminster Catechism. To this Moody responded by saying, “Be thankful, son, that you were born in Scotland.”

…the essence of prayer is the expression of our dependence on God through requests.¹

Now, Paul says to continue in prayer. In other letters he tells believers to pray without ceasing (1 Thess 5:17), pray at all times (Eph 6:18), pray about everything (Phil 4:6), etc. What he means is that our lifestyle should be typified by prayer. Prayer is the most important conversation that can come out of our mouths as believers. This is part of the “new man” we are supposed to put on, an attitude of prayer.

We are to have this attitude of prayer, steadfastly. That means we must be resolved in our spirits to do so. Our prayer life must be unwavering. This means praying even when you don’t feel like it, praying even when you’re running out of time. It means to make it a regular part of who you are. It means to persevere. Even when it seems there is no hope, continue in prayer.

As most of you know I rode the trail with Robert and a few other guys this last Saturday. We rode from Galax to Pulaski, 50 miles. It was on this trip that I learned the joys of lower gears. You see, normally when we ride we go about 14 miles and I usually keep the bike in the 21st gear, which is the highest gear my bike has. This means I have to pedal harder, but less often. It really works out your muscles.

On this trip though, my muscles were getting a plenty good workout and I had to downshift to an easier gear. Now the thing about lower gears is, the lower you go, the less resistance there is, but you have to pedal faster to maintain the same speed.

I was thinking about it while I was pedaling and God kind of spoke to me and told me, “This is what the Christian life is like.” Sometimes you have to pray hard about something. It gut wrenching and painful. I experienced prayer like that during Haddie’s delivery. I’ve never prayed that intensely in my life!

Most of the time, for the long haul of being a Christian, prayer is like the lower gears. We should do it more often, but it’s less strenuous. The same is true of our Bible reading. This is perseverance, steadfast prayer, to be faithful on the long ride. Pray regularly, pray often, it doesn’t have to be difficult, you just have to keep at it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still work. My muscles were still feeling it, but it was less stressful.

Lauren has a friend for whose salvation she has been faithfully praying for over a year. She gets discouraged at times, but she remains faithful. My brother Dar has a problem with his temper. He has prayed about it every day since he was a teenager, asking God to calm his temper and soften his heart. By God’s grace, at 33 he doesn’t loose his temper like he did at 16. He continues to prayer about it every day. That is diligent, committed, dependable, steadfast prayer.

At times we need to put it in high gear and pray hard. These are times when you are in your room, on your knees, wrestling with God in prayer, as we discussed back in chapter 2. We need those times to build our spiritual muscles.

Most often though, our prayer should be more frequent and less stressful.

We saw a biblical example of both these kinds of prayer when we studied Nehemiah last year. Remember at the beginning of the book when his heart was burdened for Jerusalem? How long did he pray and fast? Three or four months of serious prayer!

Then in chapter two when he is with the king and the king asks him what’s on his mind, what does he do? He prays real quick before speaking.

Nehemiah was a man of prayer. We looked at the many times he prayed throughout that story. But those two times tell the story of wrestling with God in prayer, putting it in high gear and getting serious. As well as putting it in a lower gear and praying continually about things that are happening right now.

How is thanksgiving watchful?

We’ve talked before about thankfulness in prayer. Last Thursday when the men were biking, we stopped to pray at the half way point as we always do. This particular day, Nelson prayed for us (we share needs, joys, requests, and then one man prays for the group). It struck me that his prayer was particularly thankful, for many things, including the cross of Christ. He commented after that he didn’t think we were thankful enough, enough, and that he didn’t think we could be too thankful.

We could talk about being watchful, and being thankful as if they were two different things, but in many ways, being thankful is a way to keep watch over the content of our prayers.

James says we ask and do not receive because we ask wrongly.

You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. – James 4:3

Read James 4:1-10 for the full thought.

Thankfulness to God, of the kind Nelson displayed, will help keep us focused on Christ rather than ourselves. If we humble ourselves as James says and express thankfulness for God’s mercy, grace, and gifts, that thankfulness will keep watch on our hearts that we will not pray out of selfish desire.

As Christians, everyday should be a day of thanksgiving to Almighty God.

Prayer for an open door for the Word.

This is prayer for opportunities. We must be ready and willing to step through that door once it is open (‘open to us a door’). Now Paul is in prison, but asking for opportunities to share the gospel! He was eager to share the good news of Jesus with anyone he could, even the Roman soldiers guarding him.

Only God can prepare men’s hearts to receive the truth of his Word. If he does not open the door to their heart it will be like seed planted on rocky ground that will not take root. So we should prayer that God will provide opportunities for us to share the gospel, for missionaries we know to share the gospel, for each other to share the gospel. And we should prayer that God would open the door to people’s hearts so the gospel can penetrate.

What is the “mystery of Christ”?

Paul asked that the believers in Colossae would pray for an opportunity for him “to declare the mystery of Christ.” What is he talking about? What mystery?

Paul has already explained this in chapter 1. Remember that? He spoke of the “mystery hidden for ages and generations” and the “mystery, which is Christ in you.” Remember what we said this was about? This mystery has now been revealed. It is the mystery, the wonderful truth, that God’s promised redemption was fulfilled in Christ, and not just for the jews, but for us gentiles as well. And God’s redemption is so wonderful that it not only involves the forgiveness of sins and our justification before God, but also fellowship with God, through union with Christ. Christ is in us, and we are in him. What a wonderful, blessed truth that is! We saw it in First John this last Sunday where John talks about confession and forgiveness, but also fellowship with God and other Christians. That was part of the plan from the beginning. And that is the gospel that we are to proclaim, the forgiveness of sins and restored fellowship with God through Christ.

Pray that the gospel will be made clear by those who proclaim it.

The Gospel must be plainly spoken lest people see Christian teaching as a way of salvation without repentance. An unbeliever must hear the message of repentance and the cross plainly spoken to them so they are not deceived into thinking they are saved if they just attend church, or obey rules.

This is a major problem in America today. We have way too many non-Christians who are comfortable in church. This should not be! For Peter tells us that Christ is an offense to non-believers.

“A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” – 1 Peter 2:8

Read 1 Peter 2:4-8 for the full thought.

And in Galatians 5:11, Paul calls the cross an offense.

You see, if an unbeliever is sitting in church week after week, month after month, and they are comfortable there, then the cross isn’t being preached properly. And the conversation taking place among the Christians in the church isn’t focused on the gospel the way it should be. An unbeliever should find himself with one of two reactions to being present in the church. He should either be offended, or convicted. Our goal is conviction. Conviction of sins. The cross is an offense because it makes it clear that you aren’t good enough. It took the bloody, murderous death of Christ on the despised cross to rescue you from yourself and you own wickedness. That message should either offend or convict people.

Let me state that despite our best efforts at making the gospel plain, there will be non-Christians in the church who think they are saved, and are not. Jesus made that clear when he said that at the final judgement many would come claiming to be Christians and he would have to tell them

“I never knew you, depart from me, ou workers of lawlessness.” – Matthew 7:21-23

The point is, we should pray for ourselves and others that they would make it clear. That the gospel would be presented often and understandably.

Let’s pray together, right now, and throughout this week, that God would open the doors of people’s hearts to hear the Word, to hear the gospel, this Sunday morning. And, let’s pray for Rusty as he preaches, for myself, and the other teachers as they teach Sunday School, that we would clearly articulate the gospel. When the gospel is made clear, it convicts, or offends, unbelievers and believers alike. With Christians especially, it should drive us to our knees in repentance, and spur us on to right living.

Let’s pray…

1. John Piper – Devote Yourselves to Prayer