Praying for the Right Things

Late in the 19th century, a Welsh minister by the name of Hugh Price Hughes wrote a story about a place he called the City of Everywhere.

One cold winter’s day, a visitor arrived at this city by train, and as he disembarked, he thought that this train station was just like so many others.

The platform was packed with people hurrying back and forth. There were people selling newspapers and coffee; there were families joyfully reuniting with loved ones; there were businessmen rushing to catch the next train.

But then he noticed something different about this place: Nobody was wearing shoes. Everyone was barefoot. And then, as he caught his cab, the visitor noticed that his driver was also barefoot.

“Pardon me,” he said. “I was just wondering: Why is nobody wearing shoes? Don’t you believe in them?”

“Of course we believe in them, the cabbie said.

“Well, why don’t you wear them?”

“Ah, that’s the question,” the cabbie replied. “Why don’t we wear shoes? Why don’t we?”

When he got to the hotel, the visitor saw more of the same. Throughout the lobby, everybody from guests to bellmen to the hotel clerk was barefoot.

As he was being checked into his room, the man said to the clerk, “I notice you aren’t wearing any shoes. Why not? Don’t you know about shoes?”

“Of course I know about shoes,” the clerk replied.

“Well, why don’t you wear them?”

“Ah, that’s the question,” the clerk said. “Why don’t we? Why don’t we wear shoes?

So the man went and had his breakfast, and then he headed out for a meeting, and in the street, everyone he passed was barefoot, even though there was snow on the ground.

He just couldn’t understand what was going on, so as he passed a man in the street, he stopped and asked about it, pointing out that shoes would be a great benefit in the cold snow.

“Don’t you know about shoes?” he asked.

“Sure, buddy, we know about shoes,” the man replied. “In fact, do you see that building over there? That’s a shoe factory, and we’re very proud of it. Actually, we all gather there every week to hear the man in charge tell us all about the shoes and about how wonderful they are.”

“Then why don’t you wear shoes?” the visitor asked.

“Ah, that’s the question, isn’t it? Why don’t we?” (Morgan, Robert J. Nelson’s Complete Book of Stories, Illustrations, and Quotes. Electronic ed. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2000. 633)

Knowing about something and acting upon that knowledge are two different things, aren’t they?

We can know all about shoes and all the benefits they convey, but if we don’t actually wear shoes, then we don’t reap any of those benefits, do we?

Well, the same thing could be said about prayer.

Last week, we talked about the Model Prayer that Jesus Christ shared with His disciples when they asked Him to teach them to pray.

You’ll recall that one of the big lessons from this Model Prayer, which many call the Lord’s Prayer, is that prayer is first to be focused on God, rather than on ourselves.

There is nothing wrong with praying that God will meet our needs and bless us and our families. There is nothing wrong with praying for health and financial stability for ourselves and others.

But the greater aim of our prayers should be toward honoring God’s holy name and praying that He accomplishes His will — not ours — in our lives and in His Kingdom at large, even if it means that He doesn’t give us health or financial stability or the things we might consider as blessings.

Today, I want to take us a little deeper into the idea of praying for Kingdom-related things, and we’ll get some fine direction in the matter from the Apostle Paul.

We’re going to be reading from the first chapter of the Book of Colossians today, and if you have your Bibles with you, please go ahead and turn there.

Now, the church at Colossae was not one that Paul had planted, but he had heard about the great faith of this church from Epaphras, the evangelist who had taught these people about Jesus, the Savior who had come to rescue them from bondage to their sins.

And what we see in the opening verses of this letter to the Colossians is that Paul was excited about how this gospel message had changed the people of this new church in Colossae.

So Paul’s natural reaction was to pray for his brothers and sisters in Christ, and what I want us to see today is HOW he prayed for them, to see the kinds of things Paul asked God to do for the people of the church in Colossae.

We’re going to pick up in verse 9, and that follows a section where Paul talks about learning of the Colossians’ great faith, about the fruit that faith was bearing, and about the Holy Spirit-enabled love that they demonstrated.

I’m going to read verses nine through 14, and then we’ll come back and pick through some of the insights we can gain about prayer.

READ COL 1:9-14

Now, the first thing I want you to notice about this prayer is what it lacks.

Paul doesn’t say that he’s praying for the Colossians to be in good health. He doesn’t say that he’s praying for them to keep their jobs. He doesn’t say that he’s praying for them to be comfortable.

What Paul had in mind was something far more important to the Colossian church than health, wealth or comfort. What Paul had in mind was that the church needed to be encouraged to be about the work of the Kingdom of God.

And so, in this prayer, you’ll see that Paul makes a petition to God, that he describes the purpose of that petition, that he explains what will be the product of that petition, and that he describes the power that enables him to make the petition.

First, let’s talk about the petition.

Look back at verse 9.

Colossians 1:9 NASB95

For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,

So what does Paul pray for in regards to the Colossian church?

He prays that they will be filled with the knowledge of God’s will.

The first thing to know about that is that the kind of knowledge in view here is more than an intellectual thing. This isn’t simply head knowledge. This isn’t the kind of thing that you get by coming to Sunday school or church a few times a month and then going on about your business.

This knowledge is knowledge that results in spiritual wisdom and understanding. This knowledge is the kind of revelation that God gives those who draw near to Him with their hearts and not just their heads.

This is a personal thing, not an intellectual thing.

You can know all the things there are to know about Jesus Christ, but if you do not know Him personally, you are lost. You can know that He is God’s unique Son, that He came and lived among men as a man, that He died as a sacrifice for the sins of mankind, that He was raised back to life on the third day, and that He then ascended back into heaven, but if that knowledge has not changed you, then you are lost.

Think of it this way: You might know intellectually that the stove is hot. But if that knowledge does not keep you from putting your hand on it, then the knowledge is useless.

What I earnestly desire for each person watching today is that you know Jesus Christ in a personal way, that you accept the fact that you are a sinner unable to save yourself from the penalty for your sins before the perfect and holy God, and that you recognize your only salvation is through the atoning sacrifice that Jesus made of Himself on a cross at Calvary.

There is an eternal difference between knowledge of Jesus Christ and a SAVING knowledge of Christ, just as there is a difference between knowledge of the hot stove and the knowledge that will save you from burning yourself on it.

Now, the people of Colossae had come to that saving knowledge of Jesus, but they were facing false teachers within the church who were mixing doctrines of the world into the doctrines of the church. They were teaching that Jesus was not God’s incarnation in the flesh, that angels should be worshiped and that people could come to a higher knowledge of God through mysticism and abuse of the flesh.

What Paul wanted them to see was that a higher knowledge of God would come through a right understanding of the doctrines the church had learned through Epaphras and through God’s own revelation of Himself through the Scriptures they already had.

Their responsibility was to put themselves in an environment that would be conducive to their spiritual growth and keep themselves from the environments that would stunt their spiritual growth.

We have the same responsibilities. If you want to be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, start with His Word.

2 Timothy 3:16–17 NASB95

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

You probably are expecting me to tell you now that you should be reading your Bible. Well, I’m not going to do that. I’m going to tell you that you should be STUDYING your Bible.

Take your time with God’s Word. Read it closely. Look up the references you see in the margins. Pay attention to the context of Scripture.

If your devotions refer to a verse or two, take the time to read the sections that come before and after those verses to see how they fit into the story that is being told.

Last time we were here in this parking lot, I told you that the whole Bible fits together as a story that God has told us about Himself and His Son, Jesus Christ — the story of how God will redeem His fallen creation through Jesus.

Think about how whatever you’re reading fits into that story. Pray about it. Ask God to show you through the Holy Spirit what the passage you are studying reveals about Him and what it reveals about you.

I promise you that as you do these things, you will have an ever-increasing knowledge of His will for you and that you will gain both spiritual wisdom and understanding.

Now, wisdom is different from knowledge. You already know that, right? Knowledge is knowing the stove is hot. Wisdom is using that knowledge to keep your hands and other flammable things away from it.

Similarly, spiritual wisdom isn’t simply knowing the facts of Scripture or even being able to quote it. Spiritual wisdom is spiritual knowledge applied to a purpose.

So what is the purpose of the spiritual wisdom Paul prays that the Colossians might gain?

Look at verse 10.

Colossians 1:10 NASB95

so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;

Spiritual knowledge is not for its own sake, but for understanding how to walk with the Lord, how to please Him and how to bear fruit in good works.

But what does it mean to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects?

It’s helpful for us to look back to where the word “walk” appears first in the Old Testament.

We see in Gen 3:8 that God walked in the Garden. And then in Gen 5:22 and 24, we see that Enoch walked with God. Gen 6:9 tells us that Noah walked with God. And in Gen 17:1, God tells Abraham to “walk before Me and be blameless.”

Now, we know that Enoch and Noah and Abraham were all sinners. “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”

So “blameless” didn’t mean without sin. In fact, this walking with God that we see in the Book of Genesis was a picture of Enoch, Noah, and Abraham being obedient to the grace of God. ( Richard R. Melick, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, vol. 32, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1991), 203.)

If you are walking with God, you are relying on God’s grace for everything in your life. If you are walking with God, you recognize that you have been saved by His grace, that you are sustained in your very breath by the grace of Jesus Christ, and that by God’s grace even your trials will be used to make you more like your Savior.

Of course, you can’t very well walk with God if you’re going a different direction from where He is going, can you? So walking in a manner worthy of the Lord suggests participating in His Kingdom work here on earth, doesn’t it?

And that leads us to consider four things that Paul said would be the products of the Colossians’s walk with the Lord.

We see the first of those products in the second part of verse 10.

We followers of Christ are EXPECTED to bear fruit. There is a reproductive aspect to our calling in Jesus Christ.

We have been saved by grace, through faith in Jesus Christ, for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

The church has a duty to demonstrate the love of Jesus Christ in the lost world. That’s how the lost world will come to know Jesus. And as they do, then we have borne fruit.

The interesting thing here is that Paul says that bearing the fruit of good works also helps us to grow in the knowledge of God. That’s the second product of walking with the Lord.

And we can see a cycle here: We grow in the knowledge of God so that we can walk in a way that is worthy of Him and bear good fruit through the work that He has prepared for us to do, and as we do that work, we grow in the knowledge of God, and as we grow in the knowledge of God, we bear more fruit.

That’s fantastic! Do you want to know God better? Then start doing the things He has called you to do.

Start caring for the sick, start seeking justice for the oppressed, start sharing the gospel. As you do, you will draw closer to God, and He will reveal Himself to you more and more.

There are two more products of a walk with the Lord.

Look at verses 11 and 12.

Colossians 1:11–12 NASB95

strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.

Friends, if there is one thing that should be clear to us all today, after weeks of quarantine and conflicting messages about the coronavirus, it is this: We do not have the kind of control over the world that we like to think we have.

And that realization can be shattering. I imagine that every one of us here today knows someone who is coming apart at the seams right now as a result of isolation and fear.

But if you have followed Jesus Christ in faith, you have within you the ultimate power, the same power by which He was raised from the dead.

You have the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the triune God Himself, within you. You have God’s glorious might to get you through this and any other trials you might face.

In spiritual wisdom and understanding, you have the power of God’s glorious might to strengthen you and to produce in you steadfastness and patience.

The word Paul uses here for patience means “to remain under,” and the picture here is of one who has “forbearance, steadfast endurance, fortitude, and the capacity to see things through. It means remaining under difficulties without succumbing to them.” (Earl D. Radmacher, Ronald Barclay Allen, and H. Wayne House, Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Commentary (Nashville: T. Nelson Publishers, 1999), 1561.)

If you are walking with God, then you should never be undone by circumstances or by people, because you have the power to endure by the Holy Spirit.

I think of Paul’s many trials: shipwrecked, beaten, stoned, maligned, and yet he persevered in the work that God had given him to do. I imagine that even as he knelt for his executioner, Paul was still talking about the amazing grace of Jesus Christ.

And throughout these trials, one thing was always present in Paul: joyful thanksgiving.

Paul’s walk with the Lord produced joyful thanksgiving.

Even in the hard times, our spiritual wisdom and understanding of God should produce joyful thanksgiving in us.

Why?

Because we have been given a share in an eternal inheritance from our heavenly Father. We who have put our faith in Jesus Christ, the Light of the world, have been adopted into His Father’s family as sons and daughters.

Look at verses 13 and 14.

Colossians 1:13–14 NASB95

For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

By the power of God Himself, we who have followed Jesus in faith have been rescued from darkness and brought into the light.

If you have not made that commitment to follow Jesus, then you are still in darkness. You still owe the price for your sins, for your rebellion against the God who created you in His image, to be like Him.

But you can be redeemed. That’s why Jesus came. He came to take the penalty that you deserve for your rebellion and to offer forgiveness for your sins. He came to redeem you, to pay the ransom to release you from sin, the domain of darkness.

And if you already have made that commitment to Christ, then what I want to tell you today is that my prayer for you more often than not is the same prayer that Paul prayed for the church in Colossae.

I pray that you will be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God.

I pray that you will be strengthened by the power of the Holy Spirit to endure with joyful thanksgiving whatever trial He allows you to face. And I pray that you will never forget the One who rescued you.

And I pray that you will wear the shoes, that you will not just know about prayer but make it a foundational part of your walk with the Lord.

I hope you will pray the same for me.