Coming Up: Sonday December 21, 2014
Colossians 4:2-18. Christ Brings the Answer
Read Colossians 4:2
As you read through the biography of George Muller it’s clear that the foundation of his life was prayer. Muller ran several orphanages in England that cared for, fed, clothed and educated hundreds of orphans. Muller brought everything to the Lord in prayer and never asked any person for a single penny! In desperate prayer he would present every need to the Lord. Often the orphanages would not have enough funds for the evening meal or to pay wages or rent. Several times it’s recorded that the prayer was answered even as Muller and his team were praying.
Today’s lengthy reading encourages us to be devoted to prayer. When we are devoted to prayer we have prayer as our number one priority in all things. When we are devoted to prayer, we diligently seek God as our first port of call.
Picture the following scenario. You’ve endured a hard fortnight with bills and expenses, including several that were unexpected and unplanned for. You’ve splurged too much on yourself and the family. There’s simply not enough to tithe this week. If you are committed to prayer it would mean you stick by your decision to tithe and you pray. It means praying not once or twice or here and there but concertedly and consistently, believing that God will provide. If you are devoted to anything else, you won’t pray. If you are devoted to anything else you’ll probably take a self-determined course of action that brings the most immediate and fullest relief. But when you are committed to prayer, you seek God diligently.
We are also encouraged to be watchful and thankful. Keeping watch is a common refrain throughout Scripture. We are to keep watch on the world – we are to know where it’s going and what the trends are. We are to keep watch over our life and doctrine and to pray accordingly. We are to keep watch over our families. and we are even to keep watch over our churches.
Beside being watchful, we are also to be thankful. We are to be thankful that God is in control, that God is sovereign, that God is still Lord. We are to be thankful for His grace and mercy to us and others. We are to be thankful that we can see the grace of God at work in the lives of others and ourselves.
I challenge each one of us to be devoted to prayer. Let’s start with just 15 minutes of prayer (including adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication) three times a day. Try to work your way up to one hour three times a day.
But I hear your heart. I’m too busy. I don’t have that kind of time. That’s just ridiculous. That’s not realistic.
Listen carefully my dear brother/sister to what Scripture says:
Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.
Prayer:
Based on today’s reading spend time in...
Adoration:
Confession:
Thanks:
Supplication:
à Spend time praising God for all the people that have ministered and served in your church this year. Ask God to refresh and bless each one and to raise up more ready and willing volunteers for the year ahead.
à Pray that God would bless your upcoming Christmas Day service with lots of visitors, with clear gospel preaching and with many gospel conversions.
Praying for and with people is a great way to witness to them. But don’t just offer to pray for them. Pray with them.
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