Colossians 4:2-4
Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should.
Paul has mentioned three attitudes in prayer that are important:
First, be consistent. We encounter spiritual warfare everyday because the enemy is trying hard to delay God's grace in order to keep our hearts away from God. Therefore, we must pray consistently. It will help us to keep the fire for God in our hearts going, because the more you open your mouth to pray and more open your heart will be, and Spirit of God will be able to move more freely within you. The more you pray, the more you will humble yourself and depend on God, thus you will maintain your passion for Him.
On the other hand, prayer can remove the obstacles set up by the devil and allow God's to come upon you more quickly. When Daniel prayed for revelation about the future for twenty-one days, the messenger of God told him: "Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days." Apparently, we may encounter spiritual warfare during prayer, but if we pray consistently God can shorten the time for the battle, or even dispatch an angel to help us. If we do not pray consistently, the resistance may last more than 21 days. Once you understand this principle, you will pray consistently without easily giving up.
Second, be watchful. We need to understand God's will. When prophet Habakkuk saw that the nation was in peril, he went up to a watchtower to pray in order to understand God's will. During prayer time, we often only see the circumstance around us, and our mind would be filled with our own thoughts, just like when Habakkuk first got up to the watchtower. He pleaded that God would defeat the Babylonians and save the Jewish people, but once we sought God's will in his prayer, he realized that it was God's will to let the Babylonians defeat the Jewish people, which was the opposite of what he thought of before. When he understood God's will, we saw in Habakkuk chapter three that he started praying with God's power and wisdom.
Third, be thankful. We need to give thanks for everything that God has done. A thankful heart is the most direct path to bring us before God. Psalm 100 says: "Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise..." God has already pace the way that leads to Him for us in the Bible. It is not a way of rationality, but a way of thanksgiving and praise. A thankful heart can bring forth a joyful spirit, and it can also lift a depressed heart before God again and again.
How is your prayer life? If you think it's dull, then you must learn to be thankful, be on alert, and be consistent in your prayer.
Pray with Pastor Tong
Lord Jesus, I ask that you once again grant the spirit of prayer to my brothers and sisters. Let prayer warriors rise up among us to pray faithful for the nation, family, church and themselves, so that your Kingdom will come and your will can be done. I thank you and I pray in the victorious name of Jesus, amen!
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