Lesson 05 – Setting a Good Foundation – Ceaseless Prayer, part 2
Read Colossians 1 - https://www.bible.com/bible/59/col.1.esv
In the last lesson we read the first reason why God wants us to pray ceaselessly – so we can be filled with the knowledge of His will. The purpose of this knowledge is that we can be fully pleasing to Him.
Let’s continue now with verse 11 which has another reason why we are to pray ceaselessly – so we can “be strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might.” Power is something we often seek; but did you notice that the purpose isn’t that we are “strong” with all power? We are “strengthened” with all power. What is the difference? God knows we cannot do things in our own strength (John 15:5). So in order to do anything for Him, we need to first get strength from Him.
What is the purpose of this strengthening? We are strengthened “for all endurance and patience with joy.”
Our strength from God is never for our own purposes, for winning a temporary battle here on earth. The strength is for the purpose of helping us to endure trials and tribulations here on earth so that we will become patient. Look at Romans 5:3-5 to see how this works in God’s kingdom – suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope. And all of this is for the purpose that we, with joy, can give thanks to the Father.
Another interesting statement is found in verse 12 – the fact that we are qualified to “share in the inheritance of the saints.” Sometimes we hesitate to do what God asks of us because we say we’re not qualified to do the job He asks us to do. In God’s kingdom it is never those who are qualified to do that job who are chosen by God – God qualifies those He chooses. He makes us qualified because He has already delivered us from darkness and placed us into His kingdom through the redemption and forgiveness He’s given us in His Son, Jesus.
God asks us to do things He knows we can’t do; but when we cry out to Him acknowledging it is impossible for us, He does it through us, and then blesses us as if we’d done it all on our own. For that, our ceaseless prayer is always one of thanksgiving.