EACF 40 Days of Prayer - January 23, 2020

EACF 40 Days of Prayer 2020
Day 23: Pray for Spiritual Wisdom and Understanding

And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. - Colossians 1:9-14 ESV

I really love how the apostle Paul sprinkled in prayers in so many of his letters; his practice teaches us how to pray for ourselves and others. We're going to wrap up our forty days in a couple of weeks with Jesus' own prayer, but today we dive into Paul's prayer for the believers in Colosse.

Paul says we have not ceased to pray for you, and praying through forty days helps us learn the habit and good behavior of regularly lifting up our brothers and sisters to God. We need to do this for one another; we need that cord of three strands and that spiritual support. I hope you are able to keep doing this, interceding for others, every day for the rest of your life. And here Paul asks that they and we may be filled with knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. This is not worldly wisdom and understanding, and this is not of our own devices or flesh or intellect or reasoning. This is spiritual, meaning we are interacting (with all of our God-given faculties) with God's Spirit. His ways are higher than our ways, and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. (Isaiah 55:9). So pray God, because He is good, will bless you with spiritual wisdom and understanding, that you will know His will in each moment, each decision, each interaction with other people, each fight with temptation, each subtle influence of the enemy, and each moment where our pride would fill our ears with our own understanding instead of God's.

This is a great prayer, a humbling prayer, and a blessed gift from God. So, pray for two others to gain godly insight and spiritual filters to identify what is of God and what is not. Write down their names, and show them God's love by sending them a note! This is day 23 of praying for good.