2023-09-22 – “For this cause we also … do not cease to pray for you”2023-09-22 –

Colossians 1:9  “For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;

Since” Paul and those with him had “heard of” their “faith in Christ Jesus, and the love which” they had “to all the saints” and their confidence in the “hope which is laid up for” them “in heaven” (Colossians 1:4-5), “since the day” they “heard it,” they did “not cease to pray for” them.  And in those prayers, they desired “that” they “might be filled with the knowledge of” God’s “will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding”.  That is, they prayed that the Church at Colosse would continue to “grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (II Peter 3:18).  To be “filled with the knowledge of” God’s “will”; is to live a life that is focused upon God’s “will” and to have ever decision and act of their lives guided and shaped by their God-given “wisdom and spiritual understanding” of His Blessed “will”.  It was God’s “will” to choose His particular people “before the foundation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4), to send His Beloved Son to “save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21), to build and maintain His “church” (Matthew 16:18), to fully and finally “save his people” to Eternal Life by His personal Sacrifice (John 19:30), and to one blessed and holy day raise all His Chosen to Eternal Life with Him (I Thessalonians 4:17).  We grow in the knowledge and understanding of these holy things by prayer, reading and studying the Word of God, attending Church and actively listening to the Preached Word, and striving with all diligence to live according to our Lord’s Word.  The more we “grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ”, the more sincere and effective our service to the Lord and the greater our peace and joy, even in a troubled world.