This last section of the letter to the church in Colosse is a warm expression of encouragement. Listen to the instructions:
“Devote yourself to prayer” is a great lesson. Too often people “say” a prayer, consider the mattered covered by the prayer, and move on. Many others “say” a prayer, get discouraged when an answer doesn’t come or the answer is not to their liking, and give up praying.
Devotion to prayer teaches us to pray when everything looks covered because we do not know what lies ahead in the future. Devotion to prayer teaches us to pray even if the answer is silence because we need to know the will of our Father in heaven. We should devote ourselves to prayer and be thankful for having God in our lives to listen and to answer.
Prayer is to be watchful. Why? Satan attacks as a prowling thief. Life also happens, and it can distract us from prayer (I get a toe stepped on here).
There are all kinds of people needing all kinds of prayer, and Paul needed that extra assurance that someone cared enough to be praying for and with him: for opportunities to preach the gospel and for a clear communication of the gospel. Here is a great lesson for all of us – none of us should be too proud to ask for prayer!
Here’s more great advice: “Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders.” As history shows, a lot of people came to dislike the Christians and quite possibly spied on them. Regardless, if we treat people harshly or act rebellious in our faith, then we lose opportunities to share Christ’s gospel message. We don’t deserve the opportunity if we cannot control ourselves. This goes back to the lists of sin in chapter three; those sins separate us from God and our ability to share the gospel with others. Restraint and grace open many doors.
Conversations lead to opportunities to share our faith. I get bugged by Christians who wear their Christianity as a chip on their shoulder or as if they had a blinking sign across their chest. Yes, we can be and should be excited about our faith, yet not to the point that we turn people off to Jesus. “Salted” conversations are calculated conversation – you weigh the options about what to say and how much should be said. You learn this by becoming sensitive to the leading the Holy Spirit.
One way to salt your conversations is to memorize Scripture and quote it without the Bible references at the opportune moments: when asked for advice, responding to bad news, etc. Don’t quote “The Lord says…” or “the Bible says...” and give a lot of Christian talk (amen, hallelujah…) unless you are in Sunday school, church, or talking to someone you know to be a Christian. It is okay to quote from portions of Scripture that do not even mentions God. Yes, you can do that – they are His Words, aren’t they? How else are you going to learn how to answer everyone?
Being full of grace requires us to approach conversations with love. “People don’t care about what you know until they know how much you care.” Live that!
The rest of the letter is an endorsement for traveling evangelists who Paul sends as his representatives for Christ. Paul took his endorsements very seriously. He also understood that he could not do everything (especially chained up in prison). He had to delegate authority and ministry; that’s how the church grows.
- Take a moment and think about how to be involved in ministry or if you’re a ministry leader, then take a moment to train and release someone into ministry today!
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