Colossians 4

http://www.esvbible.org/Colossians+4/


Paul starts out a lot of sentences with the word "pray." Praying is so important because it is direct communication to God. Prayer is talking to God, but mostly, it is listening. The first type of prayer that Paul mentions is a prayer of thanksgiving. He warns us to pay attention when we offer prayers of thanksgiving; however, I believer this means more to pay attention to what God does for you and to offer pryers of thanksgiving. The rest of the things he lists are prayer requests. It is so much more profound to feel the prayers of multiple people behind you than just yourself. Also, whenever you pray, you have the undivided attention of the Creator and Miracle Worker. Now, imagine that multiple people take that undivided attention and all pray over your prayer request. That is a lot of attention on that request. Paul's prayer requests are about helping the mission that God set before him. He asks prayer that he has the opportunity to speak the mystery of God to many people and that he can make that mystery as clear as possible. This is a prayer that many of us should probably pray. We should all ask God to give us opportunities to talk to those who have not heard the truth about Jesus or anything about Him at all. We should also pray that when we speak this truth, that the Holy Spirit takes over and makes what we say as clear as possible. Next, Paul warns that we should be careful when we interact with people outside of the faith. We should make the most of the opportunity. Earlier in this letter, Paul said that we are ambassadors of Christ and that we should always act in ways that are pleasing to Jesus since we take on His name. Now, He reminds us that this is especially important in interactions with non-believers because their one interaction with you could be the only interaction they have with a Christian ever, so you better be on your most Christlike behavior always.

Paul finishes his letter with greetings from all of the followers he has with him, as he does in many of his letters to the churches. One of these people is from Colossae. Paul tells them that this man prays the church at will continue to mature in their faith in Christ. A stable, firm relationship with God is an art form that can never truly be perfected. We can always improve things. If our relationship with Him was perfect, we would be Jesus. We can always find more opportunities to pray over decisions, to remember and invite Him to join us throughout our day, or just listen to what He wants to tell us.