Colossians 1:1-10--Angela

Thank you Jesus, for my dear friend Tina and the time we are going to spend with you in the coming days in prayer and study of your word. Thank you for the gift of love and friendship that has remained steady between us for all these years, despite the many times of physical separation. I thank you for the internet and for the tools you give us to stay connected and meet together in Your name. I pray that as we begin this study, we will find nourishment, hope, direction, clarity, and excitement about our future. May we be like the Proverbs 31 woman, who smiles without fear at her future.
~Amen

1:1 "Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother.."

Paul and Timothy write this letter together. Paul calls Timothy "our brother." Paul declares his role as apostle, not just disciple. He declares that his assignment of apostle came by God's will/choice.

1:2 "To the holy and faithful brothers in Christ at Colosse: Grace and peace to you from God our Father."

Holy and faithful. I want to remember this flavor for the whole book. I see this as the lens through which Paul and Timothy see these beloved brothers, and I've learned the importance of reading Scripture through the author's lens, not the reader's lens.

I have always loved the greeting, "Grace and peace to you from God our Father." Wouldn't it be great if we always assured people of our love and affection in the first paragraph of every note. I have received many notes without this preamble of love and affection, and sometimes I am nervous to read what someone has to say because I don't know how they feel about me before I read it.

1:3 "We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you..."

I'm convicted that all of my prayers do not start with thanksgiving for the one I'm praying for. There are a few people that I struggle to pray for with thanksgiving and faith. I get so bogged down in my own expectations and agendas in prayer, that I forget that God has a plan for their lives that might be different from the "setting them straight" that I want Him to give them. Do you know what I mean?

Of course, there are those other friends (wink, wink) who I can't help but start my prayers with a great affection and gratitude. It seems that these are the prayers that are answered far more quickly by God.

Aside from the struggles I'm having with praying for a few particular people, this passage in Colossians has always been one of my favorite prayers to pray for my friends and loved ones. I would like to pray wholeheartedly this way for those in my life who are more difficult for me to pray for, as well.

1:4 "...because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints..."

Hmmm...perhaps my expectations of myself are too high in wishing I could always pray with this fervor of gratitude. This verse clarifies that his gratitude stems from pleasure and delight at the faithful love these believers show for him and all the saints everywhere. Perhaps there are other times that Paul has prayed out of heaviness of heart and sorrow, as well.

1:5 "...the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth..."

More and more I'm getting a sense of this "springing" up from within and that things are stored up for me in heaven, but that doesn't mean I don't have access to them. It just means that they are reserved for me, untainted and safe from the corruption of the world. Faith and love in their truest forms come directly from heaven, and the Colossian believers are being commended here for understanding the source and how to tap in.

1:6 "...the gospel that has come to you. All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God's grace in all its truth."

This church is one that I must learn from. They got it right. They understood. If my fruit is not growing in the measurable ways that the church at Colosse's fruit has grown, then I want to make the adjustments I need to make. This past year I have understood that there are things about God's grace and truth that I have not understood. There are some teachings that I've believed that are not true. I've had to let go of some strongholds, teachings that do not line up with God's character, that I have been taught my whole life...things like that God expects me to be perfect in my actions and motivations toward others, that God is waiting to discipline me for my wrongdoings. It's not that it's okay for me to sin or do things with wrong motives. It's that I understand now that He is filled with grace toward me. That when I make a mistake, He is not quick to criticize or jump on me for it. He's not quick to punish me by withholding His love and affection. He is quick to embrace me and tell me that He loves me and remind me that I have new chances every moment with Him. He reminds me that I can just get up and try again. Now, the fruit I have so desperately been longing for that has seemed to elude me (self-control, to name one) is starting to bud in my life. I am eager to see how Paul's view of the Colossians will help me continue to trade false doctrine for truth and grace that comes from the gospel.

1:7-8 "You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, and who also told us of your love in the Spirit."

Sometimes I long for the writings of some of these other faithful disciples. I love Paul's writings, but I wonder how many other writings are out there that would help us fill in some of the gaps. Thankfully, we have the Holy Spirit to do just that. Still, I think it would be amazing to read something Epaphras wrote.

1:9 "For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding."

This is the part that I love to pray for others and for myself. My prayer life has changed so much in the past years with small children. I used to believe that unless I sat down and wrote a prayer out, it didn't reach the ears of God. Now, I realize that many times I don't even formally pray. When I pray for you, for instance, I usually just think of you. I picture your face, and I recall to mind the struggles that you are having and I silently tell Father God that I know He has the solutions and the grace you need. That's usually it. There are times when I get an e-mail or something from you or someone else, and I am inspired to pray a more in-depth prayer in an e-mail or in my journal, but that is a rarer form of prayer for me these days. This is what I believe Paul means by having never stopped praying for them and asking God to fill them with knowledge of His will through wisdom and understanding.

Wisdom and understanding...these are words I have studied long and hard. Orion's middle name is Joseph, which means "God will add" & "wisdom and understanding." When I was pregnant with him, I believed that God would give wisdom and understanding as supernatural gifts to us for raising him in accordance with the truths of Jesus rather than with our parents' faulty models of parenting. I am grateful that God has given us these gifts in spades, but I have been struggling these past few weeks with the depth to which my upbringing is ingrained within my habits. It is hard to do things differently from the way I was raised. I am glad to have you praying for me in this area. I know you understand completely what I'm talking about here.

1:10 "And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God..."

This is one of those passages I have had a completely new revelation about in the past year. I used to read this and feel so much pressure to be better than I was, to do more, to relate to God better, as though I could actually transform myself into a better person all by myself. I now understand that living worthy doesn't mean doing everything right or perfectly and that growing in the knowledge of God is far more than just knowing more facts about God.

I recently looked up a few of these words in the Greek. Here are the highlights:

walk = to tread all around, walk at large (as proof of ability), to live, to follow (as a companion or votary), to be occupied with [I put a link to the thesaurus query for votary that I did]

worthy = appropriately, as becometh

I think this is really important. To me, these definitions reveal that this is just another way of saying that they are praying for the believers to have the gifts they need to follow Jesus, to walk as He walked. We can pray this for each other...that wisdom and understanding, gifts from God, would penetrate through the crust and layers of our strongholds, fears, and deceptions so that we can live as Jesus lived, so that we can see others as Jesus saw them, so that we can love like Jesus loved, so that we can bring healing, hope, and love to those we come into contact with.

knowledge = recognition, full discernment, acknowledgement; the Greek word here is epignosis, which is made up of two root words: epi and ginosko.

epi = a preposition meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etc.), as a relation of distribution; because of, on behalf of.
ginosko = to know absolutely, to allow, be aware of, feel, have knowledge of, know, perceive, be resolved, can speak, be sure, understand

This kind of knowing is the experiential kind of knowing...knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt the true nature and character of God. Being able to see the difference between the hand of God and the hand of the enemy in a situation that others might not be able to determine. Knowing how He would respond at every level for each person. This is a knowledge based on His knowing and loving us first. This understanding and knowledge must be born out of an intimate friendship, like Moses and David had, not out of a clinical knowledge, like the Pharisees and Sadducees had.

So, this is my prayer:

Father, infuse us with your wisdom and understanding. Shower us with your affection and your love. Let your acceptance and affection for us saturate the marrow of our bones and the pathways in our brains, giving us Your lens with which to perceive the outside world. Give us your perspective on our situations, our children, our husbands, our friends, and our adversaries. Give us your perspective on the work we do each day, seen and unseen, rewarded and unrewarded. Draw us near to you. Give us a clear sense of your hand at work even in the darkness of the unknown and the mystery of unanswered questions about our situations and about the future. I pray that we would be so deeply rooted in Your presence and affection that we would be able to smile at the future. ~Amen