9 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,[a] 10 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, 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, 12 and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you[b] to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. 13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Colossians 1

I am preaching on this passage in Perth on Sunday morning. In this passage Paul speaks about not “stopping praying,” he didn’t mean that whatever he was doing he was praying at the same time and he is not using exaggeration either. What Paul meant was that what he was about to pray for was something for which he continued to pray on an ongoing way, each time he prayed this is was part of what he prayed for. I am fascinated by that, here we have Paul telling us that when it comes to church life and in a secondary sense our Christian lives there are certain things we should never stop praying for. There are some things so important to being church and being a follower of Jesus that we need to keep praying for them to be expressed in our community and in our lives. Another interesting little detail is that Paul didn’t plant the church in Colossae for which he prays for in these verses and as far as know never went there either. I think the implication of that is that Paul is praying in general rather than specifically, he is praying for what he believes is important to all churches not just that particular church. Of course that means that if Paul were alive today, we could probably be fairly certain this is what he would pray for if he was asked to pray for the church.

The more I read this prayer and looked at its meaning and began to grasp its implications the more I found myself making Paul’s words, my words and praying them for us as a community. I wrote out a skeleton of the prayer and then simply substituted “Mosaic” for “you” and prayed. Why not join me in doing that?

Or perhaps substituting “I” for “You” and pray it for yourself or perhaps put another church, or missionary or friend you know in place of “you”

Paul prays

That you (we Mosaic) will be filled
With the knowledge of God’s Will
by means of the Spirit’s wisdom

so that you (we Mosaic) may walk worthy
of the Lord
so as to please Him in every way
by your (our)
Bearing fruit in every way
increasing knowledge of God
being empowered to endure and
have patience
giving thanks with joy to the father

AMEN!