November 17, 2021
Author: Pastor Bernard Ibrahim
November 17, 2021
“And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you,
asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all
spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of
the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and
increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power,
according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with
joy; giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the
inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain
of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in
whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
Colossians 1:9-14
If you look at the first phrase of what Paul says, they pray for the
people in Colossae. Notice that he said, “We have not ceased to pray for
you.” And this is what he is praying for, “Asking God that you (the
people in Colossae, the new believers) may be filled with the knowledge
of his will (notice this phrase of ‘Thy will be done’) that we would
know God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.” It is
obvious from the passage as you will see in the following verses, it is
the revealed will of God. It is not that you would know historically
what the Lord has done, that is the sovereign will of God revealed in
history who controls all things in the universe. That was the first type
of God’s will, the category that was described to us. It is really that
they would know God’s revealed will.
It is also not a specific will. Look at the top of the passage,
“Paul, an apostle of Christ, by the will of God.” This was a phrase in
the passage used to prove the type of will of God that is specific to an
individual, God’s will or my individual life.
Here, it is really the revealed will of God in all spiritual wisdom
and understanding so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. So this
is the results of having that will revealed in our hearts and minds and
that’s what he is praying for for them. That they would bear fruit in
every good work and that they would increase in the knowledge of God.
Understanding the will of God explains to you more about the character
of God.
Then, “being strengthened with all power.” Having the ability to not
only have that will revealed, and now that our minds have been
enlightened or transformed by that will, then to be able to actually do
that will. So we pray that the Lord would teach us God’s will and that
he would give us the ability, the desire, the ability to put off the old
man and to put on the new man to actually do. “Being strengthened with
all power according to his glorious might for all endurance and patience
with joy.” This effort to do God’s will as well as to know God’s will.
Then he gives this explanation that directly ties to our model
prayer, “Thy will be done.” Then notice the phrase that follows, “on
earth as it is in heaven.” Notice that Paul’s prayer for them points
directly to heaven, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to
share in the inheritance of the saints in light. Salvation comes by
God’s acting. “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and
transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son.” This is a direct,
pointing to everything in heaven is according to God’s will and that’s
what we pray for, conformance to the will of God as it is heaven; that
it might be in our hearts and minds, in our church, in our lives, in the
way we think and in what we do and say as we fight the spiritual
battle; that we endure and have patience with joy.
This is my encouragement to you, that we have the model prayer and we
have in this passage in the apostle Paul’s prayer for the people (a
real group of people, new believers in a new church with their pastor
relatively new, Epaphras) who are learning God’s Word, who are
understanding the will of God, and are seeking to live out the will of
God; he is praying for them, “Thy will be done” in their lives
It is really helpful to see a Biblical model of how this prayer is
applied practically by the apostle Paul to individual believers there in
Colossae.
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