PRAYING FOR WHAT IS AND WHAT IS TO COME

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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

I always thank my God as I remember you in my prayers, because I hear about your love for all His holy people and your faith in the Lord Jesus. I pray that your partnership with us in the faith may be effective in deepening your understanding of every good thing we share for the sake of Christ.

Philemon 4-6

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

As far as we know in the scriptures, the Apostle Paul had never visited Colossae. This is what makes his letter to the Colossians so unique because when we read his other epistles, he is writing with first-hand experience of having been in the midst of the churches and their respective Christian believers. Conversely, he writes to the Colossians based on what he had heard about them and the work they were doing.

This is important to note as we continue to look at this short letter that Paul writes to Philemon, the shortest of all the epistles. For as we look at our passage today, we find Paul telling the Colossian slave owner as well as two others Christian believers and Gospel participants, Apphia and Archippus, how he has heard about the love they had for all God’s “holy people” and their “faith in the Lord Jesus”. Paul makes it clear that he is thankful for both as he remembered them in his prayers.

For us, this is the first takeaway for us from today’s message and these words from Philemon. For as we pray each and every day, we need to ensure we include an element of thanksgiving and praise for the good we see in others as they are presently serving the Lord in their lives.

In the case of Paul, he testifies he is praying with thanksgiving over his brothers in Christ, Philemon and Archippus, as well as his sister in Christ, Apphia, not because they have donated large sums of money to the church or did some amazing, miraculous act that would have been a headline in the Gospel work of the Colossian church. No, Paul’s expression of prayerful gratitude was based on two things that any Christian believer can commit themselves to display every day: love and faith. One doesn’t need to be wealthy by worldly means to be rich spiritually. That’s the point we gain from God’s word here.

Now, while this was Paul’s grateful prayer for the present state of affairs with his two Christian brothers and sister in Colossae, we also find him forward looking. For he further writes this regarding his prayers:

I pray that your partnership with us in the faith may be effective in deepening your understanding of every good thing we share for the sake of Christ.

The hope Paul expresses here is for the future, a future where the wonderful Gospel work of Philemon, Archippus, and Apphia would continue in the same love and faith they were presently showing. Note that this hope wasn’t for potential self glorification of all involved. Rather, Paul prayed that his partnership with them and the Colossian church might continue in faith so to establish a deepened “understanding of every good thing” they would collectively “share for the sake of Christ” aka the Gospel.

This is always the future hope for the church, right?

For the ongoing work of the Gospel is one of the primary things we should always be praying over until that day when Jesus returns. We should be praying not only for the work of the Christian church universal but also our personal engagement in that work as well as a constant quest to find new Christians to partner with for the sake of Christ Jesus.

When we read his letters, we learn that Paul was a man of prayer. He consistently lifted up all Christians he had worked with as well as those he had never met and as we see in today’s passage, he prayer with thanksgiving for what was being done for Christ and also for the future Great Commission work that would be accomplished in His name.

Let’s all use his prayer framework in the way that we lift up the church and its believers today and throughout this new year.

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 TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.