April 4--Colossians

Colossians 1: 9-14
For this reason, since the day we heard about you, 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 in 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. For He 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.

Paul and those he was with prayed daily for these people, even though they didn’t see them very often and even though they didn’t know what was going on… they kept praying, every single day for them.
He prayed for them to know God’s will, and to be spiritually wise and understand things.
I think it’s interesting how Paul said that they prayed IN ORDER THAT they may live a life worthy of the Lord, and please God. Does that mean that, had Paul not been praying, that they wouldn’t have lived lives quite as worthy or pleasing? Just how important does that mean our prayers for others are?
A life that is worthy and pleasing to God
Bears fruit
Grows in knowledge about God
Endures patiently with God’s strength
Is full of joy and gratefulness to the Father

The word-picture would be a plant, rooted in prayer, with leaves of knowledge, endurance, and grateful joy, and bearing fruit.

I have been struck again by how important prayer is to the lives of others, and need to remember to pray even more. Also, I need to check my life against those four points of what a life worthy and pleasing to God looks like.