Paul's Prayer

Read: Colossians 1.9-14

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT: In his commentary on Colossians, William Barclay shares the following on Colossians 1.9-14:

"It is a very precious thing to hear the prayers of a saint for his friends; and that is what we hear in this passage. It may well be said that this passage teaches us more about the essence of prayer's request than almost any other in the New Testament. From it we learn, as C. F. D. Moule has said, that prayer makes two great requests. It asks for the discernment of God's will and then for the power to perform that will...Through prayer we reach the greatest gift in all the world - knowledge plus power."

This is Paul's prayer for the Colossian church. He goes on to offer the basis for his prayer: "For he (God) has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins" (Colossians 1.13-14). In God's Son, we are rescued from darkness, we experience forgiveness of sins, and we are given citizenship in His kingdom. All of this is available through Jesus, the Son of God. The Colossians have been saved by the Son; the natural outgrowth or "fruit" of that reality is service to and for the Son. That calls for knowledge plus power, which explains Paul's prayer for the Colossians. It would no doubt be Paul's prayer for us, too.