DEVOTED TO PRAYER

Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should.

 Colossians 4:2-4 NIV

Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful…

Jesus shared similar words with Peter, James and John in the garden of Gethsemane. He said to them in Matthew 26:41:

We know that the disciples did not obey Jesus, but fell asleep; unaware of the danger they were in. Later Peter would deny the Lord, and James and John would flee, leaving Jesus alone.

We can not afford to fall asleep and stop praying. The world is growing darker and the battle with our enemy is fiercer. He seeks to rob us of our faith and tempts us to “sleep” when we need to be fully engaged in prayer and reaching out to those who need Christ. We must pray for continued passion in our lives and pray for passion in the lives of other believers.

We are told to also pray for opened doors for those who are ministering. Paul is writing from a jail cell limited by his chains, and asking that his fellow saints would pray for God to set him free to further the message of the gospel.

Those of us here in the states have been praying for American Pastor Saeed Abedini, who is serving an eight-year prison term in Iran because of his Christian faith. He has been suffering from internal bleeding for months – injuries received from the beatings in prison. I believe it is the prayers of his fellow brothers and sisters in Christ that keep him from giving up. We are here and he is there, but God is powerful! He hears and moves on our prayers.

Paul will go on in our remaining verses of this chapter to speak of his faithful fellow workers in kingdom building.

 Aren’t we glad that we are not in the battle alone?

Though we may be thousands of miles apart, there is a sisterhood bound by the power of the Holy Spirit. There are sisters in my ministry that I have never met in person, but my writing keeps us connected and encouraged, continuing to stir one another to love and good works. There is a strength that comes knowing that we are praying for one another. 

My parting words to you would be to “remember that you are not alone.“ Many are praying for you.  Paul knew he was not alone. He understood the power of prayer and partnership in the ministry. He had many things come against him that could have easily caused him to quit. Yet his words in Acts 20:24 we want to claim as our own:

Aren’t you glad Paul did not allow anything to stop him? Paul signed this letter with his own hand, and then told his brothers and sisters in Christ to remember his chains. In the ancient prisons they wore chains on their hand. God used Paul’s chained hands to write the Word of God. Satan had thought he stopped the ministry of Paul by chaining his hands, but that chained hand given to God was used to pen scripture that continues to bless us today.

  

I leave you with the exhortive words of John Piper:

Prayer is the walkie-talkie on the battlefield of the world.