MESSAGE
FROM THE
WORD
IMPORTANT THINGS TO PRAY FOR
Colossians 1:9-11
SERIES: Colossians Message # 6
One of the great stories of the Bible is found in 1 Kings 3. David had died leaving his son, Solomon to rule in his place. God appeared to Solomon and offered to grant him any desire of his heart. After careful consideration, Solomon asked for wisdom. God was pleased with Solomon’s request and gave him not only wisdom, but also gave him great wealth. What would you ask for if you could ask for anything from God? The truth is you can ask God for anything. We call this prayer.
If you were to be asked to name three activities that Christians should be involved in, I would be willing to bet that prayer would be one of those activities. Prayer is one of those activities that every believer understands they should do. This often leads to frustration, because believers know they should pray but don’t seem to pray as well as they would like. This is one of the reasons Jesus gave us the Lord’s Prayer. We read, LUKE 11:1 It was watching Jesus pray that caused the disciples to pray in the same way. The Bible is filled with admonitions to pray and with issues to pray for.
As we come to our passage today, we are going to look at an apostolic prayer list. This is not the only things for which to pray, but they certainly are a good beginning point. There are many passages in which Paul discusses prayer. This one is a gem. We read, COLOSSIANS 1:9-11 As we look at these few verses we will see the reason, the requirement, the request, and the results.
FIRST, WE SEE THE REASON FOR PAUL’S PRAYER. We have seen this before, but it is always good to remind ourselves of that which is important. Paul begins verse 9 by writing, “FOR THIS REASON ALSO…” That obviously requires that we go back into the previous passage and we read about all that the gospel had done in their lives. The power of God had been doing its work and spiritual growth and power was evident. When Paul heard that, He was led to pray. When things go wrong, that is a good time to pray. We read, II CHRON. 20:2-4; ACTS 12:1-6 When disasters come your way, it is a good time to pray.
However, when things go well, that is also a good time to pray. The best illustration of this was Solomon. Having been appointed king, his first action was to go to God and ask for His blessings. This should be our response as well. When you hear of a church that is really being blessed by God, do you pray God’s blessings and protection on them, or do your criticize them because they obviously must be doing something underhanded? When you hear that someone has been blessed financially, do you pray for them or get angry that it isn’t you? I’m not talking about someone who is obviously involved in unethical activities. This is a difficult issue for many believers. We often pray for people to succeed and then complain when we find out it’s not us. Paul heard that God was doing great works through the Colossian church and his first response was to pray for them.
God’s call to you is not to determine whom He will bless, but to pray for those whom He does bless. This is why Jesus told us, MATTHEW -47 Even those people who drive you crazy should be in on your prayers of blessings. Let me show you this in practice. 1 TIMOTHY 2:1, 2 Paul tells us that our highest obligation as believers is to pray for those in high office. Some will say, “But he isn’t a believer”. That may be true, but how many of the Caesar’s were believers? Daniel prospered under several pagan kings. The gospel was spread around the world under ruthless political adversaries. We read, NEHEMIAH 1:3-2:4 Nehemiah was disturbed by the word of the desolation of
I was in my office and received a phone call. The woman at the other end of the call said, “I hope you can help me, I don’t know what to do”. Usually when those calls come in, they are seeking financial help for some bill. However, that was not her case. She stated, “I have believed in God all my life, but now I am an atheist”. It seems that she had lost her faith and didn’t know what to do. I asked her when she had lost her faith and what terrible deed had taken place that would cause her to walk away from God a complete unbeliever. She replied, “George Bush was elected president. I don’t know how God could allow that terrible thing to take place”. We then spent several minutes discussing the depth of her faith. She would not admit it, but her true allegiance was to her political affiliation and she dabbled in faith.
Later that day, I attended a prayer group and met a man who had come to Christ out of Islam. A death sentence had been placed on his life. He had been working among Iranians in
I then went to the post office to purchase some stamps. I was wearing a shirt with our church logo embroidered on its pocket. As I was writing out my check, the teller asked me, “Did you vote for President Bush”. I wondered how he knew, but answered that I had. I told him of my phone conversation with the lady and he replied, “God raises up and God tears down”, which is a quote from the book of Daniel. I affirmed his statement and asked where he went to church. He told me that he pastored a church in South
As I left the post office, I contemplated those three meetings. Here was a lady whose life was over because her side had lost; and two young men who had a preference in who won, but whose commitment was to preach God’s word regardless of who won the election. The individual who is truly devoted to God and understands that He is on the throne will see political turmoil as simply an obstacle that God has to remove on His way to accomplishing His will. We pray not to get our way, but to understand how God wants us to overcome the obstacles that confront us.
SECOND, WE SEE THE REQUIREMENT OF PAUL’S PRAYER. Prayer is not an option for the people of God. Prayer is our lifeline to God. It is the means by which we share our heart with God. It is the way we determine God’s will for our life. Prayer is not a superficial part of the Christian life. In this letter Paul writes, COLOSSIANS 4:2-4 You will remember that Jesus sweat blood in the Garden of Gethsemane as He prayed for God’s will to be done. Daniel also took prayer to the extreme. We read, DANIEL 9:20, 21 The call of God to His people is to pray. In the Lord’s Prayer Jesus began, “WHEN YOU PRAY…” It wasn’t “if you pray”. The expectation of our Lord was that we would pray. The testimony of the early church was a call to prayer. We read, ACTS ; ; It was at the heart of the church to pray. There are even groups of people in the church given a specific task of praying. We read, 1 TIMOTHY 5:5; JAMES 5:12; ACTS 6:4 We are told in the scriptures that special groups pray for us. We read, ROMANS 8:25, 26; REVELATION 6:9-11 The call of God is to be devoted to prayer. Why? We read JAMES Prayer is not a psychological trick; it is the unleashing of God’s power. This is why Paul wrote in our passage, “WE HAVE NOT CEASED TO PRAY FOR YOU…” This is God’s call to His people, to pray without ceasing. Isn’t that the rebuke given by our Lord to the disciples in the Garden? He stated, “COULD YOU NOT TARRY WITH ME FOR ONE HOUR”? Couldn’t you even pray for an hour? What a rebuke that is to our prayer time. Jesus even gave a parable on this theme. We read, LUKE 18:1-8 Don’t grow weary in your prayer life. Perseverance pays a wonderful dividend.
As we begin to pray, where do we start? Much of today’s prayer time is spent on self. The church has developed a very narcissistic attitude and we need to break ourselves of this. We are told to pray for our daily bread and to let our requests be made known, but I don’t believe that should be our starting point. Why not start where Paul started. He stated that he would not cease to “PRAY FOR YOU…” In other words, we pray for others. Each month we give you a monthly prayer list for the entertainment industry. We can be praying for those who influence our culture. How important is this? One of the most hostile voices in
You could pray for the president, governor and mayor. The chief of police and the police force, fire department and homeland security could use your prayers. Our armed forces and their families certainly need prayer. How many missionaries do you know that need your prayers? I mentioned the Iranian pastor I met this week that has a death sentence against him because he converted from Islam. He has seen 200 people come to Christ in the last year from Islam. He and his congregation could use your prayers. How many countries do you read about in which turmoil is evident? How many cities do you read about where violence is rampant? We have heard much news during the past year over the number of service men who were killed in
After this is completed, then you can begin to pray for your own needs. Finances, health, children, friends, and dozens of other personal requests could take up a long time in prayer.
THIRD, WE SEE THE REQUEST IN PAUL’S PRAYER. Every prayer has a request in it. Even Jesus in the Garden had a request, “THY WILL BE DONE”. Did you notice how Paul dealt with this? He wrote that he continued to pray for them, that they would be “FILLED WITH THE KNOWLEDGE OF HIS WILL”. That was the heart of Paul’s prayer for these believers. If you are not sure how to pray for someone, this is a good place to start. Whoever you know, you could pray for them that they might be filled with the knowledge of God’s will. You could go through the directory and pray for the various members of our congregation. You could pray for the missionary organizations we support. You could pray for the various congregations in town that seek to minister to our community.
What does it mean to “BE FILLED WITH THE KNOWLEDGE OF HIS WILL”? The concept of “BEING FILLED” is a common idea in the scriptures. We read JOHN 16:6; LUKE ; LUKE ; JOHN 12:3; ACTS 5:3; ACTS ; EPHESIANS The concept of being filled has to do with being controlled. I have never been drunk, but I have seen people who are and they are controlled by the alcohol. That is why it is called “Driving Under the Influence”. When you are filled with anger, rage or joy, those are controlling emotions. They take over your personality.
To be filled with “THE KNOWLEDGE OF HIS WILL”, is to be taken over by understanding what God wants done. How do we go about this? We saturate ourselves with God’s word, we pray, we seek the counsel of godly people, and we look for examples of those who have been blessed by God over the years. Our desire is to comprehend every facet of God’s will. The word for knowledge comes from two words meaning to “understand” and “mega”. God is never satisfied until we truly understand to the fullest capacity what God’s will is and how to apply it to our life.
Picture going through a gallery and coming across a fine piece of jewelry. As you examine it, you realize that it has many cuts and facets which give it a different look from different angles. The more you look at the gem, the more you realize there is more to examine. Did you know that the average visit to the
I want you to notice something very important. When we talk about understanding God’s will in our life there is one area over which it dominates. Paul writes that he wanted these believers to be filled with God’s will “IN ALL SPIRITUAL WISDOM AND UNDERSTANDING”. God’s will for our life involves what he terms “spiritual” issues. That is not to say that He is unconcerned about the issues of this life, but it is not His highest priority. That is often difficult for us to accept, because nearly everything we do involves this life. We get up in the morning and eat breakfast, go to work, interact with friends, come home, mow the lawn, take out the trash, pay the bills, watch television and go to bed. We worry about the house payment, our retirement, the utility bills, the kid’s education, possible job loss, the Lakers, the latest election and a dozen other struggles. Our life revolves around the here and now. Jesus had a different philosophy of life. We read, MATTHEW 6:25-33 Jesus did not say that we had no responsibility in providing for the future, He just reminded us not to worry about it.
How do we discern God’s will? We saturate our minds with the word of God, seek to be discernful of God’s past dealings, we put our hearts into a receptive mode for His wisdom and we ask ourselves to determine the priorities of God. While we may seek the advice of spiritually minded people, we do not ask what others think. We ask what God thinks. Paul wrote, ROMANS 12:1, 2 Our focus is to develop the mind of Christ. This may sound almost mystical, but it is really very practical. The psalmist saw this idea very clearly. He wrote PSALM 1 You aren’t putting yourself in some mystical trance, reading the stars, or gazing into some crystal. You are simply seeking to determine the heart of God as it is revealed in the word of God. Paul wrote, II TIMOTHY 3:16, 17 Why do we look into the scriptures? Because it is in the scriptures that we see God’s word which is able to make up wise and prepare us for whatever task lays before us.
FOURTH, WE SEE THE RESULT OF PAUL’S PRAYER. The result of Paul’s prayer is summed up in the first two words of verse 10. These two words then set off a series of facets of God’s will in our lives. Paul writes, “SO THAT…” This is a very important part of the concept Paul is trying to communicate. In Greek it is referred to as a “Henna Clause”. In English we might refer to it as a “Purpose Clause”. What a henna clause does is connect two equal thoughts together. If I hear my children are going to go shopping, I might go to them and say, “here is $20, I want you to have lunch at Burger King so that you can bring me a Whopper when you are done”. The “so that” is a henna clause. It is there to state that the $20 has a purpose behind it. The $20 is not given to do whatever the girls want, it is given for a specific purpose. The “SO THAT” connects the idea of being filled with the fullness of God with the idea of living out the life of Christ explained in verses 10 & 11. The purpose of spiritual growth is so you might live a more godly life.
Our prayer life is not an end in itself. There is a goal in our prayer life. When we pray, we want God to do something. When we pray for missionaries, we want God to open doors for them to be able to reach people for Christ. When we pray for the government we want peace and harmony to rule over our nation. When we pray for people, we want God to move in people’s lives so that they will reflect the love of Christ in their community. In these two short verses Paul gives us nine results we want to see manifested by praying for others.
First, we pray for people to walk in a worthy manner. This is a pretty high standard. The concept of “walking” has to do with our conduct. The Christian life is not a sprint, it is a walk. It is a call to the people of God to behave a certain way. We are to walk in love, walk in the Spirit, walk in unity, etc. Those are to be characteristics that are true in our behavior. We even do this today. When we see someone who is getting off track we will tell him, “you are walking down the wrong road”. Let me just give you one example. The term for walk appears more than thirty times in the scriptures. One such case tells us that we should EPHESIANS 5:1,2 The pattern of our behavior should be characterized as love.
What does it mean to act, “IN A MANNER WORTHY OF THE LORD…”? It has to do with honor. This phrase appears on several occasions in the New Testament and always has to do with making Jesus look good. Whenever there is a scandal in the church, people say, “if that is what it means to be a Christian, forget it”. This is the opposite. This is the individual who lives a life in such a way that people say, “if that is what a Christian is, I want to be one”. That is a pretty high standard, but it is the life that Jesus can say, “WELL DONE GOOD AND FAITHFUL SERVANT…” Isn’t that what every believer wants to hear?
Second, we pray for people to please God in everything. If you want to know what the heart of being right with God entails you need to go no farther than this phrase. When Moses went up the mountain to receive the law, the first command stated, EXODUS 20:3 Do you know what the number one idol is on most people’s mantel? It is self. Our culture teaches us that the world revolves around us. Then God comes along and says that we are to put God first and not even consider our own needs. Who does He think He is?
The person who seeks to be right with God does not go to Him with their list of all they want Him to do. They say with Sen. Kerry, “reporting for duty”. This is the difference between someone who understands who God is and someone who is a religious person. There is a great illustration of this in Acts 14. We read ACTS 14:8-18 I have to be honest with you. If I preached a sermon and everyone in the pew began to fall down and cry out “the voice of a god has spoken”, I might get the impression that you have discernment. The truth is, if I preach and all you hear is me, I have failed. My task is to preach so that you see God is worthy of being worshipped. We read, PHILIPPIANS 3:3 The true believer sees Christ as their pinnacle, not themselves. Life does not revolve around them, but around God.
This is difficult, because everything we see and hear tells us to do our own thing. Make yourself out to be the top dog. God comes and says, “become my slave”. We read, MATTHEW 19:16-22 This young man had everything going for him. He was the perfect church member. Unfortunately, his primary goal was to please himself rather than to please God and God rejected him. This is what Jesus meant when He stated, “YOU CANNOT SERVE TWO MASTERS”. All of us must come to that place in our lives when we can make that decision to please God more that to please self. When we understand and want to do God’s will, that decision is easy to make.
Third, we pray for people to bear fruit. This is a popular topic in the New Testament. The culture was agrarian and much of life revolved around farming and shepherding. If you look at the parables of Jesus, many of them involved farming illustrations. Jesus put it, JOHN 15:8 The Bible lists several distinct types of fruit.
Colossians 1:10 Good works
1 Corinthians 16:15 Converts
Hebrews 13:15 Praise
Romans 15:26-28 Financial help
Hebrews 12:11 Righteousness
Galatians 5:22,23 Spiritual characteristics
Let me take all of these and give you a simple characteristic of fruit. Fruit is the natural by-product of being rightly linked into the source. When we first moved to Simi Valley we checked out our backyard and saw a lemon tree growing. Nicki fixed some fish one night for dinner so I went out into the back yard and pulled off a lemon, cut it in half and squeezed it all over my fish. Have you ever had fish with grapefruit squeezed over it? It sure looked like a lemon tree. No matter how much I thought it was a lemon tree, the trunk was a grapefruit tree and that is what the branches squeezed out.
Whatever we are grafted in to is what we will produce. This is why we should expect violence in the Middle East. A segment of that region is being taught that the highest goal in life is to kill people who disagree with them. If that is the trunk that a generation links to, violence will be the natural by-product. If you link into the Holy Spirit, “LOVE, JOY, PEACE…” will be the by-product. If you plug into the greatness of God, then praise will be a by-product. If you plug into the god who does nothing except cater to your every desire, then you will be self centered, greedy and carnal.
This is the point, we always live out our theology. Theology in its rawest form is simply our belief in God. Whatever we believe about God is eventually how we will behave. The God we plug into will determine how we behave. This is the fight in our culture today. Why do we have incredible violence in upper class schools that teach evolution? It is because students that are taught life is about the survival of the fittest will run over anyone who threatens their survival. A student who believes God created the universe and sent His Son to die for sinners because He loves them, will see people wanting to help the weakest among us.
Whatever fruit we are manifesting indicates what type of trunk into which we are abiding. If there is immoral behavior, maybe we are abiding in pornography. If there is greed, cultural philosophies may be dominate. Whatever you believe about God will eventually manifest itself in how you behave. Whatever God we abide in is the type of fruit we will bare.
Fourth, we pray for people to increase in their knowledge of God. This is an important concept for us to understand. When Paul prays that we increase our knowledge of God he is not hoping that we learn more facts about Him. That may be a part, but it is a small part. Paul is praying that the people of God would learn more about God. That is, that we would understand how He operates and how He thinks. We read, EXODUS 3:4-4:13 This is the calling of Moses to deliver the people of God from the Egyptians. Just think of all the knowledge in which Moses increased in this small section.
God is real
God knows the plight of His people
God knows who and where we are
God is a holy God
God is a God involved in historical events
God cares for His people
God wants to bless His people
God will judge evil
God does not abandon us in difficult times
God desires to be worshipped
God has an identity
God knows the future
God will use the wealth of the pagans to bless His people
God is powerful
God overrules nature
That is just a small amount of what we should know about God from just this meeting. How much do you know about God? God wants you to know more. We read, PHIL 3:10, 11 God wants us to know Him.
How do we increase our knowledge about God? Let me suggest several obvious ways. The first way is to simply look around you and observe nature. We read, PSALM 19:1 What can nature teach us about God? God is creative, He is ordered, struggles are a part of the universe, He loves beauty and diversity, and He creates everything as an original are just a few of the realities of nature we can learn.
A second way is to look into our own heart. We read, ECCLESIASTES 3:11 Animals do
things because of instinct. God has built into them senses that humans do not have. How can the swallows return to Capistrano and salmon return to the same stream in which they were hatched? God planted that in their DNA. God planted in the heart of every human a desire to love Him and to live forever. That can be stifled, but it is their.
A third way is to look into God’s revelation. We read, HEBREWS 4:12 God’s word is a powerful tool. It has the capacity to get into our heart and rip it apart. It exposes our soul and brings conviction even to the hardest heart. God’s word reveals everything there is to know about God. Do you want to know what God is like? Study the Bible and you will learn.
There is a warning for us in the scriptures. We read, 1 CORINTHIANS 8:1 The Bible never asks us to learn things so that we will have more information. We are to learn information so that we might obey its message and receive God’s blessings. The emphasis in the scripture is on doing the will of God, not just knowing it. We are to increase our knowledge and understanding about God, but so that we can know Him more completely and obey Him more fully.
Fifth, we pray for people to experience God’s power. Paul prays that the believer would be “STRENGTHENED WITH ALL POWER…” This is a very interesting phrase. The word for “strengthened” and the word for “POWER” are the same word. One is a participle and the other is an adjective, but the Greek words are the same. In other words, we are to pray that people would be “powered with all power”, or “strengthened with all strength”. There is another aspect of this phrase that is important. The participle is the first use of the word “strengthened” and it is in the present tense. That means it is not a one time act, but continually ongoing. We often think that the Christian life is like a rocket ship to the moon. There is this massive power blast at our conversion which gets us started, then the booster rocket falls off and we have to coast the rest of the way left to the devices of our own weak strength. It is more like a nuclear reactor that is released continually to provide energy forever.
This is important, because we have all had experiences where we feel we just cannot go on. God wants us to know that we have strength for the entire journey. This is why the Apostle Paul could write to the Philippians, PHILIPPIANS I cannot do it all, I can do it because the power source is inside me.
Look through the scriptures and see what we can do because of the power of God. We can be Christ’s witnesses to an unbelieving world. We can face martyrdom. We can face every trial. We can overcome every temptation that is set before us. It is through the power of God that the gospel brings people to salvation. We will be raised up on the day of resurrection by the power of God. We overcome every spiritual enemy that raises itself against God. We read, EPHESIANS 6:10-18 This is a powerful force we have at our disposal. It is not us, but God who is working in us. When we yield to the Holy Spirit, we allow Him to release His power in our life to show people the mighty hand of God.
Sixth, we pray for people to live out God’s glory. This is a great phrase. Paul prays that these believers would live, “ACCORDING TO HIS GLORIOUS MIGHT…” We have already seen the importance of God’s might and power, let me concentrate on another aspect in this phrase. The word for glorious is “doxos” from which we get doxology. A doxos is a “YEA GOD”. I grew up in a church that sang the Doxology every Sunday. It goes,
Praise God from whom all blessings flow
Praise Him all creatures here below
Praise Him above ye Heavenly host
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost
This word is used many times in the New Testament. We read, 1 COR. ; PHIL. ; PHIL. ; TITUS, ; REV. 4:9-11; REV. 5:11-14 Glory is what Christ is to receive and what the Church is to manifest. There is a problem, though. We read, ROMANS We are fallen creatures and therefore come short of what gives God the most glory. God did an amazing thing. Paul writes, COLOSSIANS We fall short of God’s glory. If we fall short of God’s glory and God wants us to manifest His glory, how do we do that? When you became a Christian, the glory of God took of residence in your body.
You will remember that in the Old Testament God lead the people with a pillar of fire at night and a cloud in the day time. That was not the only time this cloud was seen. After Solomon built the
Seventh, we pray for people to be steadfast. Paul uses two words here that are very similar. “Hupomone” is usually translated as patience in the KJV and Steadfastness in the NASB. “Makrothumia” is translated as Long-suffering in the KJV and patience in the NASB. One translator said that the primary difference is that Hupomone deals with patience with circumstances and Makrothumia involves patience with people. You probably know people who are unflappable with any problem that arises, but has a hard time dealing with people. There are others who deal well with people but get really angry when things don’t go there way. Paul’s prayer is that the people of God would see difficult situations and difficult people as opportunities God places in our path to manifest the love and patience of God of God to a fallen world.
Remember the story of Job? Satan said that Job loved God because God had been so good to Him. God then allowed Satan to test Job in a multitude of ways. He had unbelievable events take place in His life and he had unbearable people give him advice. Job had to manifest both Makrothumia and hupomone. Do you struggle in one of these areas? Maybe you think, “that’s just the way I am”. That may be the way you were, but it is not the way God wants you to be. God wants to give you His might so that you might endure any circumstance and any person.
Eighth, we pray for people to be thankful. There is no more obnoxious quality than ingratitude. Being thankful to those who do you well is a wonderful trait. It is a trait that God wants us to manifest. We read, LUKE 17:11-19 Here was a group of who had an incredible experience happen in their life and only one person turned around to say thank you. This is a very big deal in the Bible. We are told throughout the Bible, PSALMS 100:4-5; 50:14; 92:1; EPH. 5:20; COL. 3:17; HEB. 13:17 This is also seen in the negative as a characteristic of those who are unbelievers. We read, ROMANS 1:1:21; II TIMOTHY 3;2 Those who reject God will be ungrateful and refuse to give Him thanks. This is why it is so important for parents to teach their children to say thank you. It is not an insignificant issue. In fact, it is very much a God thing. This may sound like paranoia, but it isn’t. Children who do not grow up saying thank you and being grateful will have a much more difficult time trusting in God when they grow older. If an ungrateful person is presented with the gospel, do you think they will serve God out of gratitude because He has forgiven their sin? That is inconsistent with their character.
How do you accomplish this task of making grateful children? First, you model gratitude before them. You say thank you to people who do nice things to and for you. Second, you teach them to say thank you. If someone does something nice to them and they forget to say thank you, it is your responsibility to remind them. Third, you correct acts of ingratitude. Do not act as if a refusal to be thankful is a small thing. Treat it as a big deal. If a child forgets to say thanks, you remind them. If they refuse to say thank you, you must correct that. If they like TV, take away TV for a night. If they like to play computer games, take them away. If they have a computer, phone, or stereo in their bedroom, remove them. Do this in small increments. If they don’t say thank you, don’t drop a nuclear bomb on them the first day. Take away one item for one day. If that doesn’t correct the problem, increase the pressure. As a parent, your goal is to raise godly children and one of the characteristics of godliness is gratitude. This is why Paul wrote, 1 THESSALONIANS Being thankful is a spiritual quality. That means you can judge your children’s spiritual level by how grateful they are.
Ninth, we pray that people would understand their place in God’s economy. We will look at the issue of our inheritance next week, but I want you to understand where it is that you are to live out your life. Paul says that we are to give thanks to God because He has, “QUALIFIED US TO SHARE IN THE INHERITANCE OF THE SAINTS IN LIGHT”. Where are the children of life to live out their life? We are to be citizens of the light. We read, 1 JOHN 1:5-7; 2:9-11 Light is an important topic is 1 John. When we sin we are in the dark. When we confess our sins and seek to live for Him, we walk in the light. Why do we want to walk in the light? Because it is consistent with what our Father is like.
The purpose of the Christian life can be boiled down to this phrase. We obviously need to understand prayer, Bible study, fellowship, stewardship, evangelism and dozens of other issues. However, the Christian life can be explained in this way. Is what I am doing drawing me to the light of God’s holiness? Or, is it drawing me into the darkness of sin? All actions and thoughts will go one of those two directions. How we spend our money, what we watch on television, who we hang out with, and what we allow our minds to think about can all be explained by that single statement. Light or darkness, which way will this draw me? If it is toward the darkness, reject it. Paul wrote, II TIM. Flee the darkness and pursue the light.
This is a good way to develop an effective prayer ministry. Simply go through this passage and put it into practice.
This message is from the teaching ministry of Pastor Glen Jackson. All rights are reserved
