12 Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured.
What a noble prayer request that he offered! This life of prayer that Epaphras practiced is an example of eternity-focused prayer. We know the content of some of Paul’s prayers and of other’s prayers contained things like physical healing. Paul even attributes survival to the answered prayers. But the bigger picture deals with the “what happens after” question. So if God heals this person, what happens next? Or to put it another way, is physical healing an end in itself or does it simply serve a greater purpose? I would have to say that there is a greater purpose than physical healing. Here Paul outlines the content of Epaphras’ prayers for the Colossian believers. The goal of his prayers was their ability to stand firm, doing the will of God, growing in their relationship with God and their minds full of confidence in God. Epaphras prayed beyond the specific intervention that was needed at the moment. He prayed for a much greater good. First he prayed that they would be able to stand firm. There are so many pressures in life that present an opportunity for drifting away from the simplicity of the Gospel. We need to be able to stand against those pressures. If we drift away in the process of life, we will lose everything that is of importance. We must be able to stand firm or we fall in defeat. But if we stand but do nothing of obedience, we again fall short of an eternity-focused life. We can stand firm in sin, disobedience, and rebellion, or we can stand firm in Christ. The choice is ours. But we can’t vacillate back and forth. That is why praying beyond the present crisis is so important. Epaphras knew there was more than deliverance from persecution that was at stake. They very souls were in the balance and they needed to stand firm in God’s will. But his prayers reached beyond even their maintenance of the faith. He prayed for their continued growth and maturity. He wanted them fully functioning and mature believers, their minds filled with confidence in what God had done and would do on behalf of His children. It is not enough to survive the current crisis. If we survive, we need to continue in the faith and continue growing and maturing. If we survive but live unproductive lives for Jesus, our survival is empty. So next time you are praying for someone’s specific, immediate need, pray beyond the need to the aftermath. Pray that if they are delivered they will continue their growth in life, reaching maturity and fruitfulness in their walk of faith.
The Arnold Journey 