Colossians 4:2 Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.
I start with a confession: I don’t pray as much as I should and could. Especially the prayers offered on behalf of other people. I seem to pray one time for the need when it is first mentioned, but I often don’t pray a second time.
I think this is for two reasons. The first reason is that I know that the LORD heard me the first time I prayed. I am confident of His ability to do His will. I am available for intervention into space and time. I look with anticipation that He will answer, so I don’t need to pray again.
But the second reason is that I don’t stay focused too long on any one thing. I bounce like a pinball at the fun center. And this is in almost every area of my life. I have to work very hard to complete projects, because my natural tendency is to get things “close enough” and then move on to another project.
I guess that is why today’s text hit me so hard. I don’t think I am devoted to prayer. Prayer is important to me, but devoted, I’m not so sure. In the old days we would call people devoted to prayer “prayer warriors.” They saw their ministry as one of prayer.
Many years ago now I read a book written by Brother Lawrence entitled The Practice of the Presence of God. Brother Lawrence lived over 450 years ago as a Carmelite monk. He worked in the kitchen, hours of solitary work of seemingly no great importance. But he learned to recognize and acknowledge God’s presence in every moment of life.
This book changed how I look at prayer. I find myself very often seeing the LORD’s appearance in the course of everyday life. I marvel at the beauty of nature and praise God. I see the struggles of others and I breathe out a prayer. I experience His presence with me as I face difficulties of my own, and I ask for His continued help.
Our text has two qualifiers attached to this devotion to prayer. We devote ourselves while being watchful and thankful. Prayer is not a passive activity. Prayer involves battle, so the need for watchfulness is important. We need to be aware when the enemy is close at hand and getting ready to attack.
And this watchfulness is a central portion of prayer. We are tuned into the LORD’s voice and ready to respond at a moment’s notice. Prayer is communication, back and forth, prayerful volley and response. We are ready to receive His next instruction, and we are ready to act.
But prayer is also saturated with thankfulness. Just as a good healthy relationship is saturated with appreciation, so our relationship with the LORD needs to be saturated with thankfulness. This thankfulness gives us the opportunity to place ourselves and our circumstances squarely in the hands of the LORD. He has our back, to use a military metaphor. Thankfulness lets Him know that we know we are not in charge.
These two aspects of prayer, watchfulness and thankfulness, help us as we pray. We don’t get hopeless when things do go as we expect. We know He will redeem every situation, even when the outcome is not what we wanted when we prayed.
We also don’t loose focus on what is important when we pray. We are aware of what the enemy is doing, and we take that into account as we pray. Our prayers are informed by the battlefield assessment, the position of the enemy and their strengths and weaknesses. We pray informed and specific prayers.
Are you devoted to prayer?
The Arnold Journey 