Col 4:2-6 shows us today the importance of our prayer life and our public life, or as I put it on Sunday, our private life and public life. One of the most neglected areas today is prayer. Col 4:2 shows we should have persistence, passion, and the right position in our prayers. We are to “continue in prayer” or be persistent. Our prayer life should not be on Monday, then on Thursday and then again Saturday, if we have time. It should be on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. It should be persistent. It should be one of the most important parts of your day, every day! Continue in prayer!
The verse also said to “watch in the same”, or have passion in our prayers. If the devil cannot hinder you from being persistent in your prayer time, he will switch tactics. He will then attack how you pray. Many times we get the mechanical side down pat and we are persistent, but our hearts are not in it. During the “prayer time” our mind wanders from item to item. We spend 30 minutes to an hour with many vain thoughts during our “prayer time”. This is why we need to “watch in the same”. The Jews of old believed when you prayed, if your heart was not in it, then you never really prayed. I believe this to be true. When we pray we should pray with passion, with our heart staying focused on the Almighty God! We should leave the world we are in and go before His throne seeking Him! If we have the persistence without the passion we are wasting our time.
Next, verse 2 teaches the importance of having the right position when we pray. No I am not talking about kneeling or standing, eyes open or shut. I am talking about an attitude. The verse teaches we need the attitude of thankfulness when we pray. Thankfulness will produce at least two results that are keys to getting your prayers answered. First, it will produce humbleness. An attitude of thankfulness shows we do not come before God, demanding He answer us because of how great we are. God does not work for us, and just wait around for us to command Him. Some teaching on prayer almost treats God like He is some genie in a bottle, just waiting for us to rub it the right way and poof, He gives us three wishes. We come before Him humbly, ever so thankful he actually hears us! Secondly, it shows our faith in God. When we are thankful to Him, we recognize it is God who WILL hear our prayers and answer them. We also know the prayers He has answered already, were not answered because of some external circumstance, but because of God. Without faith we cannot please God (Heb 11:6), so this component is very important as we come to God in prayer.
Once we get our private life strong, it will greatly aid in our public life, which perhaps I will write about later.
The verse also said to “watch in the same”, or have passion in our prayers. If the devil cannot hinder you from being persistent in your prayer time, he will switch tactics. He will then attack how you pray. Many times we get the mechanical side down pat and we are persistent, but our hearts are not in it. During the “prayer time” our mind wanders from item to item. We spend 30 minutes to an hour with many vain thoughts during our “prayer time”. This is why we need to “watch in the same”. The Jews of old believed when you prayed, if your heart was not in it, then you never really prayed. I believe this to be true. When we pray we should pray with passion, with our heart staying focused on the Almighty God! We should leave the world we are in and go before His throne seeking Him! If we have the persistence without the passion we are wasting our time.
Next, verse 2 teaches the importance of having the right position when we pray. No I am not talking about kneeling or standing, eyes open or shut. I am talking about an attitude. The verse teaches we need the attitude of thankfulness when we pray. Thankfulness will produce at least two results that are keys to getting your prayers answered. First, it will produce humbleness. An attitude of thankfulness shows we do not come before God, demanding He answer us because of how great we are. God does not work for us, and just wait around for us to command Him. Some teaching on prayer almost treats God like He is some genie in a bottle, just waiting for us to rub it the right way and poof, He gives us three wishes. We come before Him humbly, ever so thankful he actually hears us! Secondly, it shows our faith in God. When we are thankful to Him, we recognize it is God who WILL hear our prayers and answer them. We also know the prayers He has answered already, were not answered because of some external circumstance, but because of God. Without faith we cannot please God (Heb 11:6), so this component is very important as we come to God in prayer.
Once we get our private life strong, it will greatly aid in our public life, which perhaps I will write about later.
1 comment:
Great Blog, spoke to me directly!
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