Pray for Us

Thursday, April 13, 2023

Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart.  Pray for us, too, that God will give us many opportunities to speak about his mysterious plan concerning Christ.  That is why I am here in chains.  Pray that I will proclaim this message as clearly as I should.  Colossians 4:2-4

It was a dramatic personal transformation that changed a man named Saul into Paul.  He met Jesus…and like Frost’s two roads that diverged in the woods, the journey required a choice – and the traveler could not take both – Paul emerged on the road less-travelled.  And that made all the difference for, perhaps, millions of believers down through the centuries.

You can see that change in Paul as he encouraged the Colossian believers to pray, wholeheartedly, alert, and with a thankful heart.  He asked that they include him in those prayers, focusing-on his mission to reach those who needed to hear about the Lord Jesus.  When he was Saul, the man wanted to climb to the top of the popularity and prestige ladder.  Now Paul, he had been commissioned an apostle to dig into the dregs of humanity reaching the lost, least, and rejected, to become his brothers in Christ.  Paul wanted to speak as clearly as possible to anyone who would listen, of the mystery and majesty of the King of Glory.

Taking the road less traveled eventually led Paul to a Roman prison, and the end of nearly all apostles – martyrdom.  The second century Christian historian, Tertullian records that Paul was beheaded at the end of his Roman imprisonment.  Having finished his race, what Paul wrote to the Philippian church came true, living meant living for Christ, and dying was gaining all to be with Christ.

Reflecting on your life is part of praying wholeheartedly, alert to what Christ is doing, and measuring how you have traveled the path, so you can choose wisely those next steps in the journey.  For me reflecting takes longer, having more than 75 years of history to consider.  I’m a lot older than the 8 year old boy who accepted Christ…and a little bit wiser than he was.  Looking back, there are three certainties about the path:

1.    I didn’t always choose wisely

2.    Christ was with me in both the wise and foolish choices, and was faithful in all, and is still

3.    Those who joined me in prayer helped lead me in better choices.

For You Today 

You’ll make choices today, some less important (like what to eat for breakfast), and some more important (like putting aside your fear of witnessing to that friend or co-worker).  One best choice you can make is to pray diligently, wholeheartedly, and enlisting others to pray with, and for you like Paul did.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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There are about 2,500 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper explore some of these:   The Grumpy Christian  and  Stay Alert  

Title Image:  Paul in Prison via Wikimedia Commons   Images without citation are in public domain.

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©