Learn to Know God

Pondering Colossians Chapter One

Photo by Emmanuel Phaeton on Unsplash

So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.—Colossians 1:9-10

Paul’s prayer for the Colossian Christians continues to inspire me. How often do we just pray a blessing on people and not really even think about what that blessing might be? Paul is not content to be generic, but is, instead, specific with his requests. He writes of particular gifts from God that are interwoven to create the kind of life that glorifies God. And he says he has not stopped praying for them—a testimony to his persistence in prayer and genuine love for them.

Knowledge, Wisdom, and Understanding are all aimed at what we know about God’s will and how to put it into practice in our lives. As we will see, the Colossian church family was being influenced by those who proudly perceived their knowledge of God to be far above that of the average Christian. Ever met one of those?

Anyway, Paul’s prayer is for all of them to know what God’s will is, to have the wisdom to know how to apply that knowledge, and the understanding of how to live it out day by day. He asks God to give these gifts to them.

That reminds me of James’ statement about wisdom. In James 1:5, the Lord’s brother writes, “If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking.” If you are wondering where that kind of wisdom and knowledge is, skip ahead a bit to the next chapter for a moment.

In him [Jesus] lie hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.—Colossians 2:3

The goal of this prayer is not to impress others with our knowledge and wisdom. Instead, we will shift all honor and praise to the Lord. We will approach life’s issues and struggles by applying the wisdom we received from God. This will result in two excellent qualities:

• A Life that produces good fruit—good results. Much good will be accomplished by the person who lives by the wisdom and understanding of God.

• A mind that is enriched by knowing God more deeply. The AMPC clarifies with words like “fuller, deeper, and clearer insight, acquaintance, and recognition.”

What an amazing prayer of faith! I want to pray for others this way, and I want others to pray for me this way. The goal for all of us is to become more acquainted with God over time as we walk in his wisdom.

Note: Hope your week is off to a great start. Watch for new Colossians posts on Wednesday and Friday. Thanks for reading and sharing.