Colossians 1:9 That is why we keep on talking to God about you since the day we heard about you. We ask him that you may know everything he wants you to do. We ask him that you may be very wise and that the Spirit will help you to understand.
10 We ask him that you will live the way the Lord wants you to live, so that you will please him in everything you do. We ask that you will do everything that is good. We ask that you will see the fruit from what you do. We ask that you will know more and more about God.11 God has wonderful power. And we ask him to give you all the strength you need to go through all your troubles, to be very patient in them, and to be happy.
12 Thank the Father who has made us ready to be with the people of God who live in his light.
Day 16—For years we have followed the discipline of intercession. Let us start again. |
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Since 1983 we have followed a discipline in praying making use of the prayers we find in three of the Epistles Paul wrote while in prison in Rome. We have spread this as far as we could, encouraging people to follow this discipline with us. As a result, many lives have been brought closer into line with God’s Kingdom. Now, we come upon Colossians 4:2. It comes like a present day Word of the Lord to us, encouraging us to pick it up again for the New Year about to dawn upon us.
Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving.
The word continue is from proskarteréo, a long Greek word, probably too difficult for most to even try and pronounce. It means, “to persist in adherence to” a thing. It is the Word used in Acts 1:14 to speak of the disciples who all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication.
You might say, “How can this be possible for us today? Our lives are too busy. We have too much to do just to stay afloat. We can’t pray all the time!” Yet, we claim to believe the Bible where Paul says, Pray without ceasing in I Thessalonians 5:17. Just in case this is new to you, we have written a book entitled The Discipline of Intercession. We tell in it about how we might move toward praying without ceasing, and yet go about the necessities of life. We take what steps we can. See the chapter on the principles of praying that Paul learned. One is that he learned to pray without ceasing. Read the two passages where Jesus taught His disciples to pray—Luke 11:1-13 and Luke 18:1-8.
The Scriptures in which we have found the substance of twelve prayers—one for each month—are as follows. January through April prayers come from Ephesians 1:15-20. For May through July, we use Ephesians 3:14-19. For August through October we find the substance of our praying in Philippians 1:9,10. And then, for November and December we take our prayers from Colossians 1:9-11.
After following this discipline for a couple of years, I found myself growing weary in praying. The Lord spoke to me to ask for the Spirit of supplication and grace. I asked what that meant. He spoke to my heart that that is the movement of His Spirit in me that would make me want to pray.
DEAR FATHER, please release within my heart the movement of Your Spirit that will make me want to pray. Teach me what it would mean for me to pray without ceasing. I really can’t see how this can come about, but I believe You can bring it to pass with me.
Berean Ministries
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Elk Park, NC 28622-0038
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