Daily Bible Reading 30th May 2025 // Colossians 1:9-12
9 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, 10 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. 11 May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.
Now we, in the privacy of our home and in the fellowship of the prayer meeting, spread before the Lord the needs of those who depend upon us, many of whom are far away and many of whom are up against it. In power and grace, God deigns to move and to act. As we pray, He deigns to bring blessing and renew hope and strength, and yet there is a very real and additional sense in which this blessing is multiplied when we tell our brothers and sisters in Christ, by word or letter, or action, that we are praying for them. It is immensely humbling, but you have no idea of the encouragement it brings, when folk tell you that they are praying for you. Yes, we are reticent to push ourselves forward; we do not want to boast about our spiritual prowess in prayer, yet Paul, moved by his deep pastoral concern tells the Colossian believers, not only that he is praying for them, he tells them what he is praying and why. Paul's prayer can almost be paraphrased as an eightfold petition. It is interesting, in a day and age when many within the church frown upon petitionary prayer, Paul is not afraid to ask of God. He asks earnestly for what one of the commentators calls 'theological blessings', and as such, he surely sets us an example and a challenge for our intercessions. When Paul could have prayed for any number of things: safety, prosperity, protection, health; what he does ask is that God bestows the discernment of His will and the power to do it. He prays that they might know God and so live for Him, that they might have an intelligent grasp of what the will of God demands in daily living.