My Prayer for This Year

One of the most important things to me this year is growing in my knowledge of God's will and developing an irresistible love for His Word. I've been going over things that the Spirit has been revealing to me and helping me apply to my life. This post uncovers the reason I'm blogging. I've long made it no secret that I believe worship is a lifestyle, my response toward God because of His love and grace toward me. I am to offer myself to Him for His purpose. I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection, to share in His sufferings (and I stole that from Paul in his letter to the Philippians because I truly believe that is the attitude God is developing within me now). But I also believe that God doesn't want me to withhold from you what He has been teaching me. As He uncovers more of His gracious love toward me day by day, I begin to see a little more of Him and am very willing to share with you what I see. This isn't only for my benefit or solely for yours. God's Word applies to all whether they believe it or not. His principles have not changed, and His character remains the same from the beginning. Only He is worthy of praise, and understanding and knowledge comes from Him. He is the one who fills us. May the believer take note that we are all to be looking to Him for guidance and the revealing of the Truth of His Word.

Yesterday I wrote of the assuring hope because of Christ. It's what draws us together and bring about an action in our lives consisting of faith and love. This prayer Paul mentions next is also my prayer for you and me. This prayer is why I'm sharing with you.

For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and 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 giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people 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. --Colossians 1:9-14 (NIV)

"We continually ask God to fill you" -- One of the first things that sticks out to me is asking God to fill us. The knowledge of His will only can come from the Spirit. There is nothing on our part where it can come directly from ourselves. It's all God. Our part is seeking Him. The more we grow in Him the more we begin to know His will and are able to make judgments based on that wisdom and understanding. I'm beginning to wonder that if we're not getting it or understanding, maybe it's because we aren't asking Him to fill us. Maybe in an attempt to be filled we aren't filling up correctly in that we're using the God's word to make us feel right or for our own purposes instead of His.

God filling us up with the knowledge of Him brings only one thing: a life lived unto the Lord. There has been times in my life when I've not been worthy of the name tag I wear. I boldly wear my identity as a Christian...sometimes. Moments come when I'll shame the identity I have in Christ. I believe those moments come because I've slacked in seeking God and instead have sought my own pleasure. The "filling" is of more of myself instead of God, the pleasure is for myself instead of God. The problem becomes the disgrace to the Name I bear. The identity doesn't leave in those moments. Thank the Lord for His mercy toward me!

Quick Note: The letter to the Colossian church was sent to also counterattack the heresy that was spreading around among them. Some who claimed to be followers of God were teaching a different gospel from the one they first heard. Knowledge and becoming full as a person was offered by these false teachers in a different and self-fulfilling way. But Paul makes clear that God is the one who fills. How often have we allowed worldly teaching to interfere with the truth of God? What things have crept into your understanding and wisdom (or what you believe the understanding and wisdom to be) that isn't true of God's character? Let me encourage you, before we come to conclusions about what we've been taught to be knowledge or "new," let us first be sure to test it against His Word!

"please Him in every way:" -- Here Paul gives the list of how we please Him in every way when God fills us with the knowledge of His will through the wisdom and understanding the Spirit gives. There are four things and they all seem to point in reference to the greatest commandment of loving the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.

1. Bearing fruit in every good work (love in action - bringing praise only to God through the way we live by loving Him and spreading His love toward others; fruitful good works benefits God's Name and others' lives)
2. Growing in knowledge of God (mind - our relationship with the Lord and His purpose for our lives become clearly seen)
3. Strength from His power to endure (strength that is found only in God - life is tough sometimes, but we please Him when we rely on His strength to pull through as we wait and patiently endure those trials)
4. Gratitude for the hope of our future (grateful soul - we please God by giving thanks to Him for the future He has in store for us in His kingdom)

Isn't that neat? God fills us with the ability to fulfill the greatest commandment! So it seems right to say that God's will for us is to fulfill the greatest commandments, and He is the one who gives us the knowledge and the understand in how to conduct our lives to do so. Where do we fit in? We don't! We have one responsibility and that's to seek Him! And in seeking Him, the kingdom of light shines brightly in this world of darkness and points directly to the Father!

"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." -- And this is the most awesome part of the whole passage: God's grace! We have been rescued! We've been taken from the kingdom lost in darkness and brought into His kingdom, the kingdom of light, through the Son He loves and yet crucified for us so that we might have forgiveness! There is nothing more freeing in life that forgiveness. When the bitterness of guilt and wrongdoing control us, all we long for is release. Feeding on bitterness consumes us and affects all our surroundings and out lives. But when released by forgiveness, there are no words to describe the freedom forgiveness brings! The walls of the kingdom we once were held captive in have been broken down and we have been redeemed, just like a free pass to get into an amusement park, but better...way better! We have a pass to get into the Kingdom of God!!! The pass is Jesus. The pass has been paid for. We've been moved from a loyalty that ended in ultimate destruction and into a loyalty that leads to the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.

Lord, fill us with the knowledge of Your will! Please give us the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that we may live a life worthy of the Lord and please You in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to Your glorious might so that we may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to You, our Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of Your holy people in the kingdom of light. For You have rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son You love, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.