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 honor 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 [with His blood] and forgave our sins. Colossians 1:9-14 NLT
In this prayer, Paul prayed for all who believe. That includes us. I’m too often frustrated by my lack of progress or my lack of seeing fruit in my sphere of influence. And yes, I understand that I’m too often forcing my definition of what I want to happen on God’s process. I find that when I let God define it, I can find peace. But this too can lead to frustration for me because I wish to have this view as my default and not have to “arrive” at God’s view. Seems I spend a great deal of my life’s energy trying to “arrive” at God’s point of view. So I often find myself asking, “Jesus how do I keep following Your way?”
I’m encouraged that Paul, as he so often does, gives us an overview of how to “keep following Your way” in our daily reality, while not defining what that looks like for every individual. (Can you imagine having to write a specific life script for the life of every person alive? Makes my head hurt.) I’m struck, first of all, that Paul spent a great deal of time and energy on those who were truly following after Jesus. “We have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you.” Those who were followers of the way consumed much of Paul’s physical, emotional and spiritual energy. When you read the beginning of this letter to the Colossian believers, Paul talks about loving those who love Jesus as a mark of true life change. (Check out Colossians 1:1-9 noting where Paul talks about loving people.)
So what’s Paul’s heart desire for those who are following after Jesus? What drives him to the point where he would spend emotional time and energy in prayer for someone? What does he want us to “get”? We ask God to give you complete knowledge of His will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. Paul wants us to “get” knowledge of God’s will, spiritual wisdom and understanding. Perhaps we can look at Paul’s heart desire, his prayer, as a means by which we follow after Jesus. It’s interesting that his first request is for a complete understanding what God wants us to do: God’s will. Interesting. I grew up often wondering what God’s will was. Was it something I could step in and out of? Was it something like a rail, where if I was “in” God’s will I was running on the rail, if I was “out” of God’s will I was willy-nilly all over the place getting myself into trouble until I could get back to the rail.
If you study scripture where it talks about God’s will, you won’t come away with an idea where God’s will is a path where every action you take and every decision you make is “perfectly” aligned with what God set up before the world was created. I don’t find that anyway. What I do find are statements like “It is God’s will that you be holy.” (1 Thessalonians 4:3) “Be thankful in all circumstances” (1 Thessalonians 5:18) “For God’s will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all time.” (Hebrews 10:10) “Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” (Romans 12:2) So we’re back to our thinking about life from the standpoint of “being” and not “doing”. God’s will is not what I do, but who I am in Jesus. Conversely, how I conduct my life will reflect what I understand of God’s will. That challenges me.
So how do we find God’s will? We ask for it. And now we’re back to relationship. I can’t hear and know something from someone who I don’t spend time with and listen to. I must spend intentional and consistent time with Jesus if I want to begin to understand the complete knowledge of God’s will. The cool thing about God is that we don’t have to earn it; He wants to give it to us. He doesn’t hold back; He gives us completely and totally what we’re ready for. And He graciously and lovingly prepares us to receive the things we’re not ready for.
So if we are to truly understand God’s will and how it works in our lives, and if it’s really not what I do, but who I am, I need the second thing Paul prayed for. “…and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding.” I truly need to see my world through the eyes of Jesus if I’m going to understand God’s will. I have learned that wisdom is a combination of knowledge plus experience. Knowledge plus experience equals wisdom. Walking in wisdom brings understanding. Understanding is the entering into the complete knowledge of the will of God.
Knowledge plus experience equals wisdom. For example, I know Jesus loves me. It is a simple thing for me to give mental assent to the fact that I’m loved by Jesus. I can even pass that knowledge on. Hey! Did you know Jesus loves you? But that knowledge by itself doesn’t grant me wisdom and understanding. Now when I experience Jesus’ love, then I begin to understand it. When I am tempted and I have that moment where I am at that point of decision, do I engage in this temptation or do I say, “No, I desire to follow God’s will to be holy.” Does Jesus love me at this point of decision? Of course. His love doesn’t change. Now when I look at the temptation and look at Jesus and choose the temptation over Jesus, it proves that I really believe what is tempting me will meet whatever need I’m pursuing, even though I have the knowledge that Jesus supplies all my needs. Does Jesus love me in the middle of my decision choosing sin over His provision for me? Yes. His love never changes.
Now here’s the hard part for me. If knowledge plus experience equals wisdom and walking in wisdom brings understanding, can I experience Jesus’ love in the middle of my wrong choice? My woundedness says no. The Holy Spirit tells me yes. And when I’m sitting in the middle of my sin, in the guilt and shame, when I understand and see my rebellion I ask Jesus, “Do you love me in the middle of this?” I would suggest that we must experience Jesus’ love in the middle of our wrong choices if we are ever to change. Understanding Jesus’ love in the middle of my sin is to experience being loved in the middle of my rebellion, my guilt and my shame.
When we begin to engage God on this level our lives change. We begin to understand God’s complete will. We begin to walk in wisdom and live our lives in understanding. Paul goes on to say, “Then the way you live will always honor 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”. I read Paul’s words and I’m encouraged. I desire that the way I live honors and pleases the Lord, always. I desire to produce every kind of good fruit. I want my life to look like I’m following after Jesus. And Paul separates the growth and learning part from the honor and fruit part. How encouraging that we can produce every kind of good fruit and honor God from the first time we say yes to Jesus until the day we see Him face to face. But I am more and more convinced that I must experience Jesus’ love in the deepest part of my wound to begin to understand the complete will of God.
Whew. But Paul’s not done with his prayer. And I’m glad he’s not. If you’ve ever walked in the depth of this kind of relationship with Jesus, you know it takes effort. It’s a committed life. It’s not something you do on a leisurely Sunday afternoon. It takes effort and determination. It requires much attention and commitment. Paul walked this path so he understood what it would take. So he prayed: We also pray that you will be strengthened with all His glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. Strength, endurance and patience. Something tells me that this wisdom/understanding/God’s will thing isn’t going to happen overnight and something tells me I’m going to have to give it some effort.
Paul understood, and so should we, that our salvation includes being strengthened with the power of Jesus. The same power that the Father exhibited in Jesus when He rose from the dead, this is the same power available to work in our lives. But the thing is, we’re going to need that power. It’s going to take nothing less than the glorious power of God to finish this course.
We must also understand that this is a marathon. This is the long haul. We need to be prepared to endure. And as always, patience will be required. I will be frustrated by my lack of growth, or my stumbling over my “pet sin”. Or my feeling like I’m the only one who’s in this. Whatever requires patience in my life, I’m going to need it.
I’m pretty convinced that we have it so easy in our culture that we are clueless when it comes to patience and endurance. At least I am. I’ll ask Jesus for an answer and if it doesn’t come in the next hour, I’m offended. If it doesn’t come in the next day, I forget and I’m on to the next thing.
My prayer for us as a family is that we begin to ask questions like, “Jesus, what is your will?” “Open my eyes to see where you are.” “Open my mind to the knowledge You have for me.” “Grant that I might experience Your love in the middle of my life so I may gain understanding.” “Fill me with your power so that I might endure with patience the path You’ve asked me to walk.”
