Devote yourselves to prayer. Colossians 4:2
“I’ve been praying for you for fifty years,” said the elderly woman. My friend Lou looked into her eyes with profound gratitude. He was visiting the Bulgarian village that his father grew up in and left as a teenager. The woman, a believer in Jesus, lived next to his grandparents. She began to pray for Lou as soon as she heard about his birth a continent away. Now, over half a century later, he was visiting the village on a business trip, and while there he spoke to a group about his faith. Lou hadn’t become a believer in Jesus until he was almost thirty, and when this woman approached him after he spoke, he wondered about the impact her persistent prayers had made on his coming to faith.
We’ll never know the full effect of our prayers this side of heaven. But Scripture gives us this counsel: “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful” (Colossians 4:2). When Paul penned those words to believers in the small city of Colossae, he also asked for prayer himself so that God would “open a door” for his message wherever he went (v. 3).
Sometimes we may think, I don’t have the spiritual gift of prayer. But of all the spiritual gifts listed in the Bible, prayer isn’t among them. Perhaps this is because God longs for each of us to pray faithfully, so that we may see what only He can do.
Read: Colossians 4:2-6, 12-13
Further Instructions
2 Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. 3 And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. 4 Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. 5 Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. 6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.
12 Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured. 13 I vouch for him that he is working hard for you and for those at Laodicea and Hierapolis.
INSIGHT
1. How have you benefited from the prayers of others?
2. Whom are you praying for today?
Paul closes his letter to the church in Colossae encouraging the believers in Jesus to “devote [themselves] to prayer, being watchful and thankful” (Colossians 4:2). Bible scholar N. T. Wright makes this comment: “The connection here with thanksgiving may suggest the threefold rhythm: intercession, ‘watching’ for answers to prayer, and thanksgiving when answers appear.” In addition to prayers for their own lives and the lives of those around them, Paul asks for prayers for himself and his fellow servants that the doors for their message may be opened and that they’d proclaim the message of Christ (vv. 3-4). Finally, the apostle reassures the Colossians of how loved they are by reminding them that Epaphras “is always wrestling in prayer for you” (v. 12).
PRAYER
Father, thank You that You want to hear from me! Please help me to treasure the opportunity to talk to You and pray for others each day. In Jesus name I pray and believe. Amen.
Read: Colossians 4:2-6, 12-13 | Bible in a Year: Psalms 13-15; Acts 19:21-41
