Lifestyle of Prayer
V 3 - We always pray for you, and we give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Col 4:2 Paul gives some clear instructions about Prayer : ‘Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving’ (ESV).
Firstly, we are to continue in prayer.
• We are instructed to cultivate prayers in our lives; that is, an ongoing habit of prayer. A lifestyle of prayer.
Secondly, we’re called to be steadfast in prayer.
• We’re to be immovable and unwavering in our prayers until we get an answer.
• Keeping going in prayer when we ‘don’t feel like it’ or when ‘life is busy’ even when we are on Holiday it is the key to developing a lifestyle of Prayer.
• Mark Driscoll say this a"God has 3 answers to our prayers, Yes, No, Later"
Thirdly, Paul says to us to be watchful.
• This has the sense of being awake and alert to what the Holy Spirit is saying or warning us about (Mark 14:37–38) or to the return of Christ (Luke 21:34–36).
• There’s something we can do about spiritual dozing, apathy and passivity; we can keep ourselves alert in prayer!
• On a very practical note, seek to develop habits of prayer that keep you awake (like speaking aloud and walking around) and don’t entice you to sleep (such as sitting in a cosy armchair early in the morning with your eyes closed). Get yourself a prayer Dog.
Fourthly we’re called to thankfulness (see 3:15–17).
• It’s incredibly refreshing and encouraging to regularly list up, in prayer, the blessings we’ve received. Don’t neglect it!
So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. Then the way you live will always honour and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better. We also pray that you will be strengthened with all his glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you be filled with joy, always thanking the Father. He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people, who live in the light. For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.
Colossians 1:9-14 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/col.1.9-14.NLT
Questions
1. Where do you need to grow in your prayer life? How can you do that?
2. What are the things you really desire and long for at this time? What has been you focus in your prayers?
3. Do you pray for the church? and what kind of things do you pray?