III. A Witness is Ready to Worship

Have you experienced the flow? The flow is when God employs you to do something you have no ability to do. When you teach the Bible and see the Lord turning on the switches in your students' heads, or when you share the gospel and receive a positive response -- that's the flow. Having had a little of that experience, I can certainly understand why the seventy returned with joy! They had seen God at work -- through them! Wow!

Do you ever complain of not getting anything out of church? Well, the simple explanation is that you are not available to God during the week. People who see God at work on Tuesday afternoon can't wait to sing His praise on Sunday morning.

An additional benefit of that weekly gathering is the same reminder that Jesus gave the seventy, "rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven." Knowing God is better than serving God. Always rejoice in rescue. Our salvation is the trump card of all miracles.

Finally, I'd like to notice verse 21: "At that very time He rejoiced greatly." The Lord sings when people come to know Him in simple faith. Lord, let us participate in spreading your fame. (Doug Searle)

July 15, 2001

Proper 10

What Really Matters?

Paul's Prayer for the Colossians

Colossians 1:9-14

Are you a successful person? That's a big deal in our culture, isn't it? Yet nothing is so elusive as success. Even those who reach the pinnacles of accomplishment often find "success" to be empty. Someone asked best-selling author Jack Higgins what he wished he'd been told as a child. His reply? "When you get to the top, there's nothing there."

How about you? Do you ever feel unproductive -- not accomplishing anything of value? Do you ever feel dumb -- like you're leaving certain critical factors out of the equation? Do you ever feel weak -- ready to just give up and run away? Are you a happy person? Does your life matter?

The Christians in Colosse also wondered about these things. As in many of his letters, Paul begins with a prayer, and in this prayer he condenses and concentrates what is needed for the Colossians, and for us.

I. You need to know God's will

Paul's prayer includes only one request: "that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will." In our day-to-day experience God fills us with knowledge of His will through interaction with scripture. The scriptures, Paul told Timothy, are sufficient to "thoroughly equip" us for "every good work."

Knowing God's will, however, is not automatic; it's something to be prayed for. When you read your Bible, do you reduce the experience to religious duty? Going through the motions? Or do you give the Spirit an opportunity to personally teach and direct you? Paul prays that we would know God's will "in all spiritual wisdom and understanding." Only as the Spirit illuminates the Word of God to us do we gain an accurate understanding of it's meaning and a correct personal application.

But let me give a word of caution: Understanding here means seeing how things fit together. When reading the Bible, you need to know how the part you're reading fits into the whole. Your confidence in your knowledge of God's will, then, is directly related to your diligence in studying the whole Bible, "accurately handling the word of truth."