Colossians 1:9-14 – For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience,  and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.  For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves,  in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

We continually ask God to fill you

Do you ever feel empty? You have amazing wonderful things going on in your world, yet you feel like you’re missing something? Or maybe you’re going through something really tough and you feel like you’re all alone. Maybe you worked really hard to lose weight, but when you did you realized it didn’t change your relationship with your husband the way you thought it would. We all get disappointed. Why? We see the answer in our verse above.

The knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives

What is the answer? The answer is knowing God’s will for us through wisdom and understanding from the Spirit. Some of you might say, “How do I get that?”, well, one way the spirit comes to us is through Baptism, another is through scripture, and thirdly from prayer. I know some of you pretty well by now, and someone is going to email me and say – “Really? Is that all there is for me?” I know as humans we want to DO SOMETHING! But the truth is the thing we really need to do is spend time with God. Put Him first above everything else. Spend time with Him. You say you’ve tried reading scripture and praying, do it more. Maybe hear some scripture through some Christian music. Get engaged in a Bible study, by yourself or with others.

So that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way:

• bearing fruit in every good work
• growing in the knowledge of God
• being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might
• you may have great endurance and patience
• giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light

God wants these things for us so we can live a life that God has planned for us, because it brings Him pleasure for us to live with Him in our lives. When we do that, we are going to bear more fruit. We’re going to grow in our relationship with Him. You know the friends you’ve spent a lot of time with pretty well, don’t you. Spend that kind of time with the Lord and watch what happens. Some of you have been going through some really tough things lately, we’ve been praying for many of you, and this next part made me think of you. If you’re in relationship with the Lord through the Holy Spirit, you will be strengthened with all power. Not a little power, you will be strengthened with all power. God parted the Red Sea, saved Daniel from the Lion’s Den and Rose Jesus from the dead, I think He can strengthen and preserve you too. He can handle what you’re going through. What’s another benefit of walking with the Lord? You will have endurance, you will be able to get through the tough times and miracle of miracles you will gain patience (I always seem to need more patience). All of this He does for us so that we might bring Him glory, showing His greatness to the world. In these tough experiences, we are developing the testimonies that the Holy Spirit could use to encourage others to come to faith. To God be the Glory.

 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves,  in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. AMEN!!!