Colossians 1:9-14 

“For this reason, since the day we heard about you,we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his willthrough all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, ¹⁰ so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God,¹¹ being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, ¹² and giving joyful thanks to the Father,who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. ¹³ For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, ¹⁴ in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

As we continue in Colossians Paul moves from praise to prayer. When we make Praise our purpose prayer becomes a priority.  Praise impacts the person we pray for. When we are praise focused we become free to pray for others when we are problem focused our prayers become trapped in the prison of self. Paul doesn’t let the place he finds him in, prison, determine his purpose. Paul reminds us that circumstances do not have to control our Christian lives, that problems don’t need to dictate our praise and prayer. Who do you pray for most, you or others? Paul chose not to focus on praying for himself and his prison problems but instead he prayed for other people. Have you ever had someone ask you to pray for them? Did you pray and what did you pray for? It’s easy to tell someone you’ll be praying for them but will you and how will you? Paul was specific, every Christian can serve the spiritual well-being of other believers by stepping up to the call to stand in the gap for others through prayer. Intercessory pray accomplishes amazing things allowing us to play a role in others spiritual growth even if you are not able to be around them. Paul prayed for the Colossians to live a life that please God. What does it mean to live a life that pleases God? We may list a number of behaviors as those things necessary to please God, the list of dos and don’ts. These are all externals and if we listen closely to our list we are really saying: the one who pleases God is the one who is most like me because we seek to define pleasing God by our own standard. Yet Paul gives us a better approach to pleasing God as we look at his prayer:

1. PERCEPTION Vs 9

Paul prayed for the church that they would be able to understand to perceive God’s plan. He could have prayed that they would not be persecuted, have good health, or that they would prosper, but he prayed that they would know God’s will. What good is perfect health or possessions without Christ? Perception is a powerful thing, it is the process of using the senses to acquire information about the surrounding environment or situation. We do most of our gathering through thinking and feeling and we often get frustrated with each other in how we differ in this, one gathers data the other uses a gut check! But Paul is giving us more than just an ability to perceive our surroundings but a foundation for spiritual reality. We often base our reality on our own perspective but what Paul’s is praying for here is an ability to see things from God’s perspective, to look at the world through His eyes with His desires and wants. This is a master perspective verses a me perspective, one is just a so much bigger. The reason so many Christian’s lives are messed up is because they are living on the me plan verses the masters plan.