Our devotional in Paul’s prayers and prayer reports continues:
Colossians 1:9-14 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. 10And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully 12giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. 13For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Here’s the same prayer (NIV, 1984) structured out so you can see the parallel thoughts. Notice that as he goes along, Paul turns a corner from prayer report to praise! His last petition is that those he prays for would joyfully give thanks to the Father, and beginning with ‘who has qualified you’ he models this thanksgiving. This is another characteristic of his prayers that we would do well to make our own.
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