HOPED OUTCOMES

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com

In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

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 will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, 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, being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, 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.

Colossians 1:9-12

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

As we intercede for other Christian believers in prayer, one thing we should always ask the Lord to do is help them grow in their knowledge of His will while providing wisdom and understanding through the Spirit. We learned this in yesterday’s message as we read how Paul did it in his letter to the Colossians, chapter 1, verse 9.

We want to do this because spiritual growth is critical to the health and survival of any Christ believer. It has been said that a person is either living or dying spiritually and I believe there’s a lot of validity in that statement. No one will ever perfectly be the person the Lord wants them to be and so that makes us all works in progress. Putting the emphasis on progress, you can see why we should be praying for the spiritual advancement of our Christian brothers and sisters.

Okay, so we are praying for the spiritual growth of our brothers and sisters in Christ? What are the hoped outcomes from this? What behavioral qualities would indicate that spiritual growth is really happening?

We find the answers in our passage between verses 10 and 12. Look again at them here:

...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, being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, 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.

Here, we find the following main hoped outcome and it in turn will lead to the others.

...so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please Him in every way.

When a Christian is filled with the knowledge of God’s will “through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives”, their lives are transformed and made “worthy” before Him, something that pleases Him “in every way”. This is the first step to gaining the others hoped outcomes which include:

1. Bearing fruit in every good work.

Following God’s will and exercising the knowledge and wisdom provided by the Holy Spirit will always lead a Christian to do good works because anything our Father calls us to is inherently good. These good works will continuously produce a harvest of abundant fruit as the Lord’s will is done in our lives and, in turn, in the lives of others.

2. Growing in the knowledge of God

We can never possess enough knowledge of our God and will never perfectly know all there is to understand about Him even if we dedicate a lifetime to it. Therefore, there is always something to learn, each and every day, and we will learn as long as we are steadfastly devoted to Him and His holy Word, obedient to everything He calls us to do.

3. Being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience

When we allow the will of God to be ours then we will inherit His strength and power to complete everything He desires. Often times, His will requires us to persevere over a long period of time and this will require us to “have great endurance and patience”. All we need to do is continue to stay plugged into the Lord, 24/7, for He and He alone is our source of power, a holy divine power that will never run out.

4. Giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of His holy people in the kingdom of light.

Ultimately, when we allow the will of God to reign supreme in our lives and perpetually seek wisdom and knowledge from the Holy Spirit, we will find ourselves in a places of constant thanksgiving as we bear fruit, grow in the knowledge of God, and receive His strength and power to persevere. We will also be constantly reminded of the salvation provided by God through Jesus, His Son, a salvation that brought every Christian an inheritance “in the kingdom of light”. Through belief in Jesus as Savior, every Christian is a co-heir to the kingdom of heaven and this is a blessing we need never lose sight of, no matter how hard life becomes.

Friends, we need to pray for fellow Christians today just as Paul did for the believers in Colossae, asking for God to fill them with the knowledge of His will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives. When we do this, we will share in the Apostle’s hoped outcomes and be blessed as we see them come to be within the lives of our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com