Seeds for 04/03/2023 - Colossians 4:2
Scripture: Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. 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. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.
Observation: This is a great memory verse—simple, succinct, instructive, centering.
Sometimes a biblical author isn’t making an explicit contrast but the word or image he uses invites us to understand its importance by thinking about alternatives. “Devote yourselves to prayer” is a simple instruction that invites just this sort of reflection for me.
What alternates might we imagine? How about these: “Be indifferent about prayer.” “Disregard prayer.” Or perhaps something like: “Just pray when you feel like it.” Yuck. I want to be more devoted to prayer, but I really want to run the other direction from those!
Devotion is about intense commitment and faithful pursuit.
“Watchful” reminds me that there are opportunities to engage in the ministry of intercession—prayer to God on others’ behalf—every day. When I’m devoted to prayer by actively watching for those opportunities, my life and faith takes on a heightened level of purpose and engagement. If you’ve been prayed for by a “watchful” pray-er, you’ve experienced the blessing of someone purposefully engaged with the world around them.
“Thankful” keeps me connected to the blessings of God in my life, which in turn keeps me anchored to God’s promise to Abram, that he would be, “blessed in order to be a blessing.” My spirit is then in a good place so that I’m positioned in my soul to be more watchful regarding the people and world around me.
One more thing. Having looked ahead, there’s a verse that provides me with a vivid picture of a person devoted to prayer: “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.” (verse 12)
“Always wrestling in prayer for you.” That’s a devoted pray-er if I’ve ever heard of one.
Application:
How does keeping watchful help you grow, or remain, devoted to prayer?
What else might the Holy Spirit speaking with you about in the text today?
Prayer: Lord, show me who and what you’d have me pray for today. Grow my devotion to seeking you in prayer. Amen.
“But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23)
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How does keeping watchful help you grow, or remain, devoted to prayer?
Prayer and communication with our Heavenly Father has a comforting effect as we thank Him, ask for His blessing and help in our lives and petition His help and blessings for others in need. Praying daily, as a “habit” makes me feel more grounded in my faith and life.