Colossians 4:2-6
“Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.3 And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. 4 Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. 5 Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. 6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.”
Paul has taught us about living the new life in God’s power by putting off the past and putting on His provision, His Godly garments so that we can have real relationships where we connect instead of control. Now Paul reminds us that taking God’s power to people is not just for family but for all. Paul also reminds us that perusing people comes through the power of prayer. So today we are going to take a trip together into God’s truth. When we hear God’s Word we have a tendency to swing to the extremes either taking a trip on a Comfort Cruise or a Guilt Getaway. For too long the church has chosen comfort and used guilt to get people to go. Today I’m calling you to board God’s boat on a grace getaway. I can’t promise you a comfortable cruise but our captain is Christ and I can promise you an exciting expedition of eternal significance. As you read God’s Word today don’t cringe or cling to comfort listen to Christ’s call, we don’t need another guilt trip we need a God trip.
Difference between guilt and grace is that where grace moves us to the master guilt becomes our master.
Our text falls naturally into two parts.
- Prayer: Speaking to God about people (verses 2-4) Faith that Loves
- Proclaiming: Speaking to people about God (verses 5-6) Faith that lives
Now, before you shut down and drown in another mental guilt trip at the mention of prayer and evangelism, let’s allow the Holy Spirit to bring freshness perspective to this passage. We’ve all heard messages on the need to pray and share our Faith. We know that prayer makes a difference, that we have access to the God of the universe yet many of us proceed without prayer. When we do we go it alone which leads to frustration weariness and burn out. How tired are you? Are you communing with God or just communicating to Him?
