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My church has just come to the end of a week full of prayer - I am filled with faith and joy for what God is doing, and what God will do, but as always it is good to grow in our prayer lives so I wish to share these thoughts.

'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 (NLT)

We are to pray . . .

Paul's words here are a reasonably straightforward breakdown of how we 'ought' to pray so let's look at how he recommends we should!

. . . devoted

Firstly, Paul says we are to 'devote ourselves to prayer'. The word 'devote' here comes from the Greek word proskartereo, which is an incredibly active verb, meaning to attend continually to, or to persevere and not faint. In other words, we are to keep going and push ourselves to be continuously praying! Prayer should most certainly not just be a five minute, 'God bless my family' before bed, although that can form part of it; prayer must become a lifestyle choice for us. This means actively choosing every day to begin with prayer, to react instantly to situations with prayer, and to continue to pray about specific situations until we see breakthrough or closure. The word devoted, in the Greek and English puts one in mind of serving another, and prayer is a way we can serve God by deepening our relationship with Him, and a way we can serve others by involving them in our prayers until we see an answer.

. . . with an alert mind

There is a warning here no to pray mindlessly. Although praying continuously is what we are called to do, if it ends up becoming a background activity that we take no notice of then we will lose the prayer mindset. We are therefore called to be aware of what and who we are praying for at all times, and pray actively for them. Something that has really helped me in this area is praying in tongues, which can enable us to pray for areas that we perhaps do not know a great deal of detail about. By trusting that God knows the best we can rely on His Spirit to give us words, and allow Him to intercede for us 'with groanings that cannot be expressed in words' (Romans 8:26).

. . . with a thankful heart

In addition we are to pray in the knowledge of what Christ did for us on the cross - being aware of His grace upon us can cause us to have only one attitude, which is that of thanks to the God of all creation. By reflecting on the cross on a daily basis we will always remain humble in light of the grace we have received, thankful to God for that grace and mindful of others and their need for grace. This recognition of what Jesus achieved on the cross, and the awesome love He showed is also something that will remind us of the power and sovereignty of God, and His ability to answer prayer.

. . . for opportunities

Paul then encourages the readers to pray for him and his team in their ministry, which is the spread of the gospel. This is an area of natural overflow - by reflecting on the grace that has been poured out onto us through the blood of Jesus Christ we must surely respond in two ways: give praise to God in thanks of what He has done, and look for opportunities to share that good news with our unbelieving friends, family and colleagues. This is an area it is too easy to overlook, which is why I feel Paul particularly mentions it here. In our prayers we can find it relatively easy to pray for ourselves, and the needs of our friends but we too easily forget that the greatest need is surely the need for a relationship with Jesus so let's be encouraged to pray devoted, with an alert mind, with a thankful heart and for opportunities to share the good news of Jesus Christ.

"Point of Reference" from Fred Price

Counting the Cost and Bearing the Cross