1) Do you pray for others? What requests do you bring to God on behalf of others?
2) How clearly can you articulate the essence of your faith? Is there one word you can speak that would tell what it is all about?
3) Do you enjoy solving mysteries? How do you feel when what you’ve been trying to figure out becomes clear?
Praying for others is a great way to be involved in the lives of those near and far. At times we pray specifically for people we know. Other times we pray generally for people we’ve never met. While there is certainly a wide variety of topics and issues we can pray about for others, consider the nature of Paul’s prayer in 1:9-12. Paul was asking God that the Colossians would be filled “with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.” Why was this the focus of Paul’s prayer? So they would live worthy lives pleasing to God. What would it be like if this is the way we prayed for others today?
Paul clearly spells out the absolute superiority, dominance and supremacy of Jesus (1:9-12). He created all things. He is over all things. He is before all things. He is the head of all things. All we believe in and hope for is found in Him. Everything about our faith can be summed up in one word – Jesus!
Paul says he has been commissioned to reveal a mystery to the church (1:25-26). This was not a mystery in that it was something strange, but rather it was something that had been hidden in the past. So what mystery did Paul reveal? “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” The incredible truth of the gospel is that through Jesus, God made a way for us to have hope. And even more, He did so in such a way that we not only benefit from what Jesus did for us, but we also enjoy His very presence in our lives.
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