Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
Whatever you do, don’t stop now. You’re probably wondering, stop what? We’re going to find out through today’s Verse of the Day.
It's Colossians chapter 1, verse 3. "We always pray for you, and we give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Out of context, there’s not really a lot going on here other than Paul telling the church he’s praying for them and thanking God for them. If you take a second and look at what’s going on, take the grander context into this situation, we’re seeing Paul writing a letter to a group of people that he planted a church with.
The Grander Context
Church planting is not an easy feat, and if you’ve been a part of a church plant, godspeed. Keep going. It takes a lot of work to put a church together, to get a group of people who have the same vision, who walk together in unity, and then for the person who started this movement to step away and to watch it all happening from a distance. There’s a lot going on in there, a lot of dynamics.
When Paul is writing this letter to the church, he says that he’s praying for them and he’s thanking God for them.
Now the question is why? Why is Paul praying for them? If you keep reading through this book, he starts telling them that he’s heard good things about what they’ve been doing. He’s heard about the fruit of their sharing the Gospel, their strength in the Spirit, their unity together. All of these things are worth celebrating, and Paul wants to let them know, hey, I’m praying for you.
When the Breakthrough Comes
This got me thinking. How often do we pray for something we want to see with fervor, with angst, with gusto, before we ever see it happen? Then once we see it come through, we stop.
Have you ever been there? You’ve been praying for financial breakthrough, and when the check comes in, you stop praying. Or you’ve been praying for that significant other. You meet them. You fall in love. You get married, and then you stop praying with the same strength and fire that you did while you were waiting for that moment.
I’ve been there so many times, and this morning when I was processing the Scripture, it convicted me. How often do we start something, or we pray for it to begin, and then once we see it the way we think it’s supposed to be, we stop and we let it go?
Paul is showing us here that just because you see fruit, just because you see people growing in their calling, just because you see all of the good things that you’ve been praying for, doesn’t mean you stop. Actually, that’s where you need to start picking up the pace. That’s where you lean into the Holy Spirit and you say, God, how should I pray for it now that it’s begun?
The Most Important Time to Pray
I would say, debatably, the moment that something starts to happen is the most important part. Not that the prayer that went into it beforehand doesn’t matter, because it did. It strengthens your faith, and when you saw that breakthrough, you knew God was listening. But the moment that something starts is the most important time to pray. If the enemy could come in and take out something in its infant stage, in the very beginning, it’ll keep it from growing into what God wants for it to grow into. This is not the time to stop.
Keep Praying
Don’t stop now. Keep praying. Your prayer changes things. I will never understand the depths of prayer, and I don’t think any of us ever will until we see God face to face and we talk to Him about it. What we do know is this: God is listening. When we pray, there are things happening spiritually that are shifting and changing.
Maybe your prayer focus changes from God, please make this happen to God, protect this. Keep it going.
Today I pray that you are encouraged in your prayer life. Just because you’ve seen something break through or happen doesn’t mean it’s time to stop. It’s time to lean in and trust God even more with the future of that breakthrough.
