A Prayer for Spiritual Maturity
Colossians 1:9-14
(Colossians 1:9-14) - For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
As we examine Paul’s prayer, I believe it is important we understand not only what Paul prayed for them, but what he DID NOT pray for them…
1st - I want you to note that he does not pray for
2nd - Absent from Paul’s prayer was any word about the false Gospel being preached and taught today known as the
BIBLICAL CHRISTIANITY is NOT believers using God to enlarge their portfolio! It is God using believers to enlarge His kingdom…
(See … 1 Timothy 6:6-10)
As we examine Paul’s prayer for spiritual maturity, I think we can say 4 things about the prayer itself:
I. IT WAS AN
(vs. 3) - “I am praying ALWAYS for you.”
(vs. 9) - …(we) DO NOT CEASE to pray for you…
II. IT WAS A
“You” or “your” is used 14 times beginning in vs. 3…
There is something powerful that happens when we personally pray for someone and their needs.
III. IT WAS A
When Paul prayed for the Colossian believers, he specifically prayed 6 things for them…
“I am praying specifically for you…
To
…that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will (9a)To
…in all wisdom and spiritual understanding (9b)To HAVE a
…that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him (10a)To PRODUCE
…being fruitful in every good work (10b)To GROW in your
…and increasing in the knowledge of God (10c)
To be a
…strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy (11)
I want others to see God’s power within me.
IV. IT WAS A
…giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.
How did Jesus ‘qualify us’ to have an eternal inheritance?
1) He
…He has delivered us from the power of darkness.
2) He
…and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.
3) He
…in whom we have redemption through His blood
4) He has
…the forgiveness of sins.
May we