Episode 46: Colossians 1:10-12
Transcription
Today’s verse is Colossians 1:10-12
In the Message translation.
We pray that you’ll live well for the Master, making Him proud of you as you work hard in His orchard. As you learn more and more how God works, you will learn how to do your work. We pray that you’ll have the strength to stick it out over the long haul—not the grim strength of gritting your teeth but the glory-strength God gives. It is strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy, thanking the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that He has for us.
Let’s pray together.
Jesus, I’m so grateful for the people You put on this earth with me. I don’t think I could survive without those who gather around me, support me, and help share my burdens. I’m thinking especially of those who help lead and guide us, those who have put their lives into sharing Your word and encouraging us in our spiritual walks with You. I pray Your blessings on them and on their work. I pray You make it fruitful and encourage and strengthen them, even as they do so for others. No one is exempt from needing You.
Part of why we need these people so much is because there is work to do here. Not all of us have that specific work as our day-to-day job, but we are all called to some type of ministry. It can look so different and sometimes that’s what’s hard about it. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do or how I’m supposed to do it. It feels like an impossible task or like I got the directions wrong. So I need people to help guide me with words and actions imparted from You. It all needs to come from You, LORD.
Today I pray for the strength Paul describes. I don’t want to try to do it on my own anymore. I’m too prone to that. I plan and execute my will and lean on my own know-how and determination. I’m exhausted. It’s simply too much for me to do on my own. Whether it’s work or play or everything in between, Jesus, I need Your strength. Please forgive me for always trying to do everything on my own. Forgive me for displaying a lack of trust in Your ability. Forgive me for saying I know best. Instead, I want You to decide what’s best for me.
Show me the paths, lead me down the meandering but purposeful way that You knew before I was even born. I want to fulfill Your will. I want to help the people You lay out in front of me. I want to do the work You set before me. I want to say the words and be in the places and know the things You purpose for me. I want to be wholly surrendered to Your Sovereignty.
But I thank You for the partnership You have with me. I thank You that You use me at all. You have made us Your hands and feet on the earth. We are Your instruments to work good in this life. Help me to live up to what You want for me. I don’t want indolence or selfishness to keep me from being something good in this world, from spreading Your love and Your grace. Please use me, please meld my heart into a soft place for Your work to dwell.
And thank You that You give me the will and the ability to do it. I thank You for the natural talents and personality You endowed me with. I thank You for the environment that shaped me. I thank You for the skills and knowledge and experience that has formed who I am. And when I struggle, when I feel like I can’t go on, when I don’t know what to do, I thank You that You are still there. You never leave me. You don’t just watch me writhe in agony. But You give me what I need. You walk through the darkness with me. You provide rest and help and endurance when I need it. And then You give me joy in that sadness and hope in that despair and always turn all things into the bright, true form of Your goodness and mercy. Help us to have the eyes to see it.
Whatever you walk through today, whatever task you have set before you, be joyful in it. Because God is with you. I pray you hear His voice and see His guidance. It might feel unendurable and that’s no small thing. Life is hard. God’s work is hard. But don’t try to strong-arm your way through life, doing what you think you have to. I pray peace and relaxation into that stress, and I pray you surrender to the All-Knowing God, the One who has bright and beautiful things for you to do.
Jesus, be our strength and help us not to strive, but to partner with You. I want You to be proud of me and I want to help You in every way I can. Please help me, because without Your assistance, I can’t do the Kingdom work set aside for me. How sweet to have a purpose! Let me shift and turn and toil through all the twists of the seasons of my life, focused on You, only on You.
Bless us in our work today, LORD Jesus. Bless whatever our hands find to do. May it bring You glory.
I pray this in Your name, Jesus. Amen.
