Aleethia!

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. › Continue reading

This lesson was taught on Sunday morning, 08-10-2008.

Sometimes it seems the Lord is far away and you can’t feel his presence. It seems like he has abandoned you just at the moment when you need him most. David felt that way and wrote about it in the Psalms.

In Psalm 13 we’ll look at the journey from sorrow and desolation, to joy and rejoicing. The hinge between the two, we’ll see, is prayer.

The Psalm can be divided into 3 parts which Spurgeon has labeled

the question of anxiety, 1, 2; the cry of prayer, 3, 4; the song of faith, 5, 6. ¹

Taking verses one and two let’s look at “the question of anxiety.” What is meant, is the question we ask of God while suffering from anxiety. Do you know the question? It is in the text four times.

How long?

That is the question. Have you ever felt that way toward God? Just asking him “How long will I have to suffer through this? How long till I’m out from under my parent’s authority? How long till…?” › Continue reading

This post is part of a teaching series on the book of Colossians. All of the lessons in this series can be found here. In the first lesson we outlined the book. In each subsequent lesson we look at one small section of the outline and seek to answer five questions concerning the text.

Last week we took a look at this same passage, focusing specifically on how Paul prayed in verse one. This week we’re looking at the rest of the passage to learn what he prays and why.

2 that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ,

Paul is praying for their “hearts” to be encouraged. What does he mean by hearts?

As this term is used in Scripture, it refers to both the rational and emotional elements of our inner person. The mind and emotions. All of who we are at our core.

Paul’s prayer is that their hearts would be encouraged, comforted, uplifted. He says this will happen when they are

knit together in love

What does he mean by “knit together”? Is Paul getting out a knitting needle? This Greek word literally means “compacted, or held together.” I would prefer an english rendering that said “welded together.” › Continue reading

This post is part of a teaching series on the book of Colossians. All of the lessons in this series can be found here. In the first lesson we outlined the book. In each subsequent lesson we look at one small section of the outline and seek to answer five questions concerning the text.

This section of Colossians is defined on our outline as “Paul’s ministry of intercessory prayer.” Looking at Colossians 2:1-5, this week and next, we’re going to discover, how Paul prays, what he prays, and why he prays.

This week, we’re just going to focus on verse one.

Colossians 2:1

For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face,

Verse 1 tells us how Paul prays. He says that he struggles in prayer for them. This word “struggle” is agona in the Greek. It is the root of our word agonize. It was used in Greek literature when speaking of the combative nature of the olympic games. It is more often translated “fight” (1 Tim 6:12) than it is “struggle.”

We know from our survey of Colossians that some false teachers had infiltrated the church there, attempting to lead the Christians astray. Paul cannot confront them in person due to his captivity in Rome at the time of this writing (Colossians 4:3, 10). Therefore his prayer is his weapon, along with this letter, in this spiritual fight. He tells us in Colossians 4:12 that Epaphras also struggles for them in his prayers. What Paul is suggesting here is that he is engaging in a spiritual wrestling match.

To wrestle though, you must have an opponent. When we go to our knees in prayer, who, or what, is our opponent. What/Who are we struggling/wrestling with?

We might struggle with unrepentant sin when praying. - Psalm 66:18

We might struggle with doubt and unbelief. - Mark 9:24

We might struggle with distractions. - 1 Peter 4:7

We might struggle in spiritual warfare. - Ephesians 6:12

Satan is often depicted as our opponent. To be sure, prayer is an offensive weapon in the spiritual war against Satan.

We might also wrestle with God in prayer. › Continue reading