… we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of His will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.  (Colossians 1:9-12)

Do you pray for your fellow believers the way Paul prayed for the Colossian Christians? I confess that I rarely do.
 
One problem is Paul’s long, dense sentences. You don’t have to understand every nuance, though, to realize that Paul’s prayer focuses on the believers’ spiritual health, not their physical, temporal problems. I’d like to ask Paul, “Did you also pray for their physical health, marriages, livelihoods, wayward children?” I wonder if he would reply, “Yes! Don’t you see? I prayed that the person suffering from disease, the husband and wife in a troubled marriage, the man who lost his job, the child in rebellion against his parents would know and understand God’s will for them in their situation and then live out His will as a life worthy of the Lord.” 
 
Even as I acknowledge that every physical, temporal problem has a spiritual angle, praying like Paul seems very vague and long-term and unquantifiable. In my flesh, I prefer quick, observable, measurable results. I look to God like a student of mine views me: She thanked me recently for helping her improve her math grade by 43% after just six tutoring sessions. Too often, those are the kinds of results my prayers seek.
 
But God’s work is often quiet and slow, directed at the root of the problem. I need to align my priorities with God’s, pattern my prayers after His word, and trust Him with the results.
 
Practice Paul’s prayer on these topics this week:
 
1.  Thank the Lord for our elders – Paul Bautts, Nick DonVito, John Gilbert, Bob Sanchez, and Dave Tebay – and ask Him to guide them in their role as leaders of the body.
 
2.  Lift up the “Keep It Cozy” women’s event on Friday. Pray for good fellowship and mutual encouragement.
 
3.  May all our conversations – inside and outside of church – be full of grace and seasoned with salt.  (Colossians 4:6)
 
4.  Pray for a peaceful transfer of power from one president to the next at the inauguration ceremonies on Friday. 
 
5.  The current session of the ESL Bible study concludes this week. Pray for two class members who are not Christians. Pray that, after spending more than four months studying the Sermon on the Mount, they will make a genuine heart decision for Jesus Christ.
 
6.  Pray for any among us who are depressed, discouraged, or just “stuck” in some way. Ask our Father in heaven to lift them up and give them a new song to sing.
 
7.  Thank God for the times He has protected you and your dearly loved ones from harm, and you were completely unaware.
 

In Christ,
Carol Gilbert
Calvary Community Church of Brea