Saturday 25 August 2018

Psalm: Psalm 123

Background

A good place to begin today is to re-read the whole of Paul’s letter to the Colossians. Read it and notice as you read words and phrases which particularly strike you. Read right to the end as if this letter was addressed to your church. What is God saying to your church?

These four verses in today’s reading, summarise all that has gone before and give very clear instruction to the community of believers: pray and act wisely.

People of prayer are dependent on God and want nothing more than to spend time each day in God’s presence. It is from this quiet conversation with God that wisdom grows.

Paul wants the Colossians to want to pray as much as God wants them to. Meeting God in joyful thanksgiving and becoming comfortable in God’s presence enables the relationship of prayer to deepen and grow to fill more and more of the life of believers. This is not to say that they spend more and more time praying at the expense of engaging in other aspects of life, but that prayer permeates, informs and influences more and more of life. The community who takes prayer seriously becomes wise and Christ-like in its actions. The Church will grow in response to the Church’s praying because that prayer will inform how the Church acts.

As the Church prays, outsiders observe changed lives and different values and this will raise questions about how believers live. This letter expects believers to cultivate answers that do not condemn and trample all over the sensibilities of the questioners. The answers will be wise and appropriate for each enquirer and use good humour and intelligence because these answers arise from the prayers of God’s people.

To Ponder

• As you read the whole of this letter, what are you noticing? What might God be saying to your church?
• What part does prayer play in the life of your church?