Colossians 1:7-10 Paul Prayed for Others
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: September 21, 2020 Colossians 1:7-10
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf and has made known to us your love in the Spirit. And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;
(Understanding the Text) The Colossians were evangelized by a man named Epaphras. Paul respected Epaphras and believed that he had taught the Colossians correctly from the beginning. Epaphras spoke of the Colossians to Paul so that Paul could care about them like Epaphras did. This also tells us how Paul looked at himself. He considered himself to be a servant of Jesus. He considered Epaphras to be serving Jesus also. In other words, Paul did not view himself as Epaphras’ boss. Instead, they were in the same position working different fields for their mutual boss.
Paul prayed a lot for the various churches that he had started and that he had heard about. I wonder what his prayers were like. I don’t think they were simply “God bless mommy and daddy and everybody” type prayers, but I’m not sure how to pray beyond listing the people you don’t know and don’t care that much about simply because you have never personally met them.
Paul’s prayers were to request that the Colossians would be filled with the knowledge of God’s will and that they would have spiritual wisdom and understanding. The end result that Paul wanted was for them to live their lives to reflect well upon Jesus. He wanted the Colossians to grow in a way that made Jesus happy. Two results of the growth that Paul wanted were that they would be doing good works and that they would increase in the knowledge of God. I understand the second, but I wonder what kind of good works Paul was thinking of. Probably, the traditional Biblical ones of assisting the poor, widows, and orphans. However, he may have had something else in mind, such as being kind to each other and giving moral support to each other.
(Revelation of God) The knowledge of God is of prime importance for any Christian. Jesus said that it was essential for eternal life. “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3). We do not know God well when we first accept Jesus as our Savior, but the end goal is that we will know God better and better every day. The Colossians seem to have been following this trajectory because Paul says that they were loving each other in the Spirit, i.e., they treated each other as brothers and sisters because of the leading of the Spirit in their lives. Thus, Paul’s prayers seem to have been answered.
(Application / Prayer) My application for myself is that I need to pray more for others. I am terrible at it, but it is something that healthy mature Christians do. Help me to become better at praying for the spiritual growth of my fellow Christians. Give me love for them so that I want to pray for them when they are in trouble and for their spiritual growth even when they are fine.