: Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God (Colossians 4:12). My attraction in our scripture verse for meditation today is the content of Epaphras prayer for the Colossians. His prayer was that the people would stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. The will of God, whether at the universal or individual level, refers to the purpose of God for humanity - how He wants us to live and what He wants us to do. The will of God goes down to the very minute details of our lives as individuals - where He wants us to live, the type of career to pursue, who to marry, what church to attend, and so on. The components of that prayer would include that people are well instructed in the will of God (which is contained in the word of God), would be fully persuaded of its truth, accuracy, sufficiency and necessity, and would be fully committed to obeying and submitting to the will of God so revealed. Notice how important this prayer is that Epaphras prayed it always and with fervent labour. He obviously must have been praying such prayers for himself and knew by experience the indescribable joy and the inner peace that will attend to a life lived within the confines of God’s will. He knew the manifold blessings that will be the constant experience of the one who stands perfect and complete in all the will of God. And of course, he knew that a life lived at variance to the will of God will be full of frustration rather than fulfilment. Thus Epaphras threw himself into serious prayers, trusting God that the Colossians would stand perfect and complete in all the will of God and be able to enjoy the benefits thereof. Every individual ought to pray such prayers for himself on a daily basis. Parents ought to pray it regularly for their children, and pastors ought to pray it for their congregation. In fact, employers of labour, school teachers, coaches, leaders and other managers of men who want to see positive fruits from their labours would be doing themselves a world of good by praying for the people they oversee that they will not live contrary to the will of God for their lives. For at the end of the day, no amount of teaching and coaching will produce positive result in a life that is not committed to living within the liberating bounds of God’s will. Finally, I must emphasise that this is not only a prayer to pray, it is a prayer to do. In other words, after you have prayed the will of God, you must proceed to do the will of God. The same energy you put into praying the will of God must be put into doing the will of God - may be much more. May the Lord cause you to stand perfect and complete in all His will for your life. ~ Exercises. 1. What is your topic for todays message? 2. What truths have you learnt? Write them down. 3. What actions should you take and what would be your prayers points?
Posted on: Mon, 02 Dec 2013 06:36:26 +0000
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