UNDERSTANDING THE PROCESS
Colossians 1:9-10 NLT
[9] “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. [10] 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.”
Here is the first of the many prayers in Paul’s letters that give us glimpses into the way he prayed and the way God wants us to pray. In his prayers, he gives examples that help us understand how to pray.
We mostly learn to pray by listening to others pray. So, we continue in the mistakes others make instead of learning from the Bible itself.
As we have already noted, New Testament prayers are concerned with our ‘inner man’ more than with our outward circumstances because our lives now are a preparation for the life to come and a witness to the unbelieving world of God’s grace in us.
Let’s look for a moment at God’s goal for every believer. He is calling people into an intimate relationship with Himself to be a family and to administer His kingdom with Him. Therefore, to achieve His goal, He has a twofold training programme. He must teach us how to overcome our old sinful nature and He must mature us in obedience and submission so that we become like Jesus, His perfect Son.
If these are on His agenda for us in this life, then our prayers for ourselves and others must concentrate on accomplishing what He has designed us to be and to do.
Paul’s written prayer for the Colossians Church has these elements in it.
- He prays for knowledge and understanding. How important these are in our journey through this life! If we don’t know what God is doing and if we don’t understand why He is doing what He is doing in us, our lives will continue to be a chaotic muddle.
Our first step in this journey, then, is get where God is going with us so that we learn to cooperate, not fight against, our circumstances and His work in us through them.
- He prays for good fruit. Fruit means the visible evidence of the root and nature of the tree. When we are rooted in Jesus, we bear the fruit of our new lives in Christ in two ways; by the work of God’s Spirit in us, who changes the way we relate to God, to others, and to ourselves…
Galatians 5:22-23 NLT
[22] “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, [23] gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!”
…And by the way we pass on this new life to others. We sow the seeds of God’s Word into other lives and they, in turn, take root, grow, and produce fruit.
- He anticipates growth and maturity in believers. When believers understand who they are and why they are here, and cooperate with God in His work of growing mature sons in His family, God accomplishes His purpose in us and He is glorified.
Our role in prayer, then, is to partner with God in His programme. Instead of praying ‘circumstancial’ prayers, always caught up in the moment and battling our issues, we begin to understand what God is doing and work with Him through faith and patience, praying ‘amens’ to His promises and trusting Him for the grace to persevere.
2 Corinthians 1:20 NLT
[20] “For all of God’s promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding “Yes!” And through Christ, our “Amen” (which means “Yes”) ascends to God for his glory.”
2 Peter 1:4 NLT
[4] “And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.”
When we understand this process, our prayers for our everyday circumstances will fit into God’s programme and enable our trust in Him to grow us as He graciously meets our needs on our journey.