Skip to main content

Going for Growth

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. [Colossians 1:9-10]
Paul wrote Colossians to a church he had never visited before. His purpose was to reassure them that the message of Jesus they had received and come to believe was the real deal. There was no need to look elsewhere or add to Jesus with other religious practices or rules. But how will they know that for certain?

According to Paul, the key part of this that they will experience real change! The good news of Jesus changes lives and it is growing everywhere! So early on he wants to let them know that he longs and prays for them that they continue to show evidence as followers of Jesus  by growing in their faith. Real followers of Jesus grow wherever they are!  But in what way do we grow? 

First, followers of Jesus grow to be like Jesus. Paul expresses this as living a "life worthy of the Lord". That is leading a life consistent with Jesus Christ. To be Jesus to others! Such a life will be a life pleasing to God. Where God is essentially first in our lives as he is first in the life of Jesus. It means doing things that aims to make God smile!  

When we are growing we bear good fruit for God in everything. All work in our lives become good work because it is done for God! Paul emphasises work that bears "fruit". There's a lot of good things do but only God makes things fruitful - or shine out for his glory!

Secondly, followers of Jesus grow by knowing God. Growth comes by knowing God's will in everything! Knowing is prior to doing! If we don't know what God desires of us, we can't grow! God's will speaks of his purposes, desires and intentions. It is his very self! Growth is therefore about growing intimately to know God himself. Not just facts about him! 

This knowledge comes about through "all spiritual wisdom and understanding". In short: God makes available all his boundless resources. These resources are spiritual because they are given by the Holy Spirit. These resources are wise because they are founded by Christ who is the wisdom of God, and are delivered by the Word of God. Growth not only comes with knowledge it also includes understanding. That is the practical outworking of God the Spirit and His Word in our lives!   In our day to day work we need these resources to function and grow!

Finally, followers of Jesus grow through God himself. Paul recognises that growth cannot happen unless God himself brings it about. So he asks God for it for them! Prayer is vital for growth! In prayer we surrender to God! And Paul's praying is a good example to follow - it is urgent, consistent and outwards!

If we desire to grow we must pray. If we want others to grow we must must pray! Not just talk! A key reason Paul prayed is that He had a concept of a big Jesus as he explains later in Colossians.  All Paul's prayers were big! BIG JESUS = BIG PRAYERS. Small Jesus = small prayers (and prayerlessness). 

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Humility of Newton

Thou hast honoured me. Thou hast given me a tongue and a pen, many friends; (Thou] hast made me extensively known among thy people and I have reason to hope, useful to many by my preaching and writings... It is of thine own that I can serve thee. And if others speak well of me, I have no cause to speak or think well of myself. They see only my outward walk; to thee I appear as I am. In thy sight I am a poor, unworthy, unfaithful inconsistent creature. And I may well wonder that Thou hast not long ago taken thy word utterly out of my mouth and forbidden me to make mention of thy Name any more! JOHN NEWTON ( Source : Wise Counsel) Newton wrote these words addressed to God in his diary in 1789. In that year, Newton’s fame had grown significantly because of his publishing ‘ Thoughts upon the African Slave Trade’ and his appearance before Her Majesty’s Privy Council appointed to investigate the slave trade.  I find Newton’s words quite challenging. The words reveal a heart truly shaped by t
Post a Comment
KEEP READING →

Incarnation and Modernity

[The Bible] resituate modernity's prejudices within a wider context from which they were originally wrenched, showing them to be reductive heresies of a more complex biblical reality. So whereas modernity privileges an unchanging a-historicity, in the incarnation God enters history at a particular moment to gather a people to be with him not in a Greck eternity of unchanging timelessness, but in a biblical eternity of never-ending and ever-renewed intimacy and relational richness. Whereas modernity subordinates the particular to the universal, the Bible perfectly marries the universal "image of the invisible God" together with a particular first-century Palestinian Jewish man. Whereas modernity seeks the abstract over the material and finds itself painfully akimbo between the twin idols of materialism and immaterialism, in the same gesture the incarnate Christ validates material reality and prevents his followers from ever worshipping it. Finally, whereas modernity secks
Post a Comment
KEEP READING →

I am what I am by Gloria Gaynor

Beverly Knight closed the opening ceremony of the Paralympics with what has been dubbed the signature tune of the Paralympics. I had no idea Ms Knight is still in the singing business. And clearly going by the raving reviews she will continue to be around. One media source says her performance was so electric that "there wasn’t a dry eye to be seen as she sang the lyrics to the song and people even watching at home felt the passion in her words" . The song was Gloria Gaynor's I am what I am . Clearly not written by Gloria Gaynor but certainly musically owned and popularized by her. It opens triumphantly: I am what I am / I am my own special creation / So come take a look / Give me the hook or the ovation / It's my world that I want to have a little pride in / My world and it's not a place I have to hide in / Life's not worth a damn till you can say I am what I am The words “I am what I am” echo over ten times in the song. A bold declaration that she
Post a Comment
KEEP READING →