⁹ 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, ¹⁰ 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, ¹¹ being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, ¹² 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.

Last week, based on Ephesians 1, we considered Paul’s prayer request for the church to have experiential knowledge of God’s blessings in Christ Jesus. Here in Colossians, Paul prays for them to be filled with the knowledge of his will. By this, Paul does not so much mean knowing what socks God wants us to put on today (!), but understanding what God’s purposes and plans are in Christ Jesus as recorded elsewhere in this letter. Paul sees a very strong link between this life within (see John 17v3 “This is eternal life: that they may know you the only true God”) and our life without. Our understanding of God’s desires and purposes leads to a life which pleases God. This life is fruitful in good works, increasingly knows God, is able to endure with patience and is thankful to God. This should motivate us even more to pray for God to fill us with this knowledge. If the secret of living a more fruitful life is for God to fill us with more of this wisdom and understanding of his purposes, then we had better get asking for it.

So maybe, we can model this prayer of Paul by praying for ourselves and one another in these words, “Heavenly Father, fill us more and more with the wisdom and understanding of your purposes, so that we may live fruitful lives worthy of you. Amen.”

With love and blessing,

Roland

¹⁵ For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, ¹⁶ I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. ¹⁷ I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit^[f] of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. ¹⁸ I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, ¹⁹ and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength ²⁰ he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, ²¹ far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. ²² And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, ²³ which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

The faith and love demonstrated by the believers in Ephesus shows that they are under God’s blessing (Ephesians 1v3-14), and this fact so enthuses Paul that he cannot help but give thanks and prayers for them. What do I see in my fellow believers? Despite any issues addressed later in the letter, Paul sees this status as fundamental to his relationship with them. So what does he pray for them? He prays for their knowledge and understanding in the blessings God has given them – that they would know God better, know the hope of his inheritance for us, and know the power of God for us. Paul has much else to write on these things in his letter, but let us grasp at this point that this is not just theoretical knowledge that Paul is asking for, but a deep experiential knowledge. Oh, may we have such a deep and enduring experience of God that we really know him and fully appreciate the spiritual blessings that are ours in Christ Jesus. Imagine a church where everyone has fully grasped and is totally experiencing all the spiritual blessings listed in Ephesians 1 – and God can do more than you can imagine (Eph 3v20).

So maybe, we can model this prayer of Paul by praying for one another in these words, “Heavenly Father, I thank you for the faith and love in Hope Church, I ask that we would know you in a deeper and deeper way, and fully appreciate the spiritual blessings you have given to us. I ask this because we belong to Jesus who has all power and authority. Amen.”

With love and blessing,

Roland

¹⁴ For this reason I kneel before the Father, ¹⁵ from whom every family^[a]in heaven and on earth derives its name. ¹⁶ I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸ may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, ¹⁹ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. ²⁰ Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, ²¹ to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Last week we looked at Jesus praying for God to be glorified in the church, and this week, Paul prays similarly. This seems a pretty good precedent to pray likewise. Jesus saw God being glorified through the unity of believers with God and with one another, and this resulting in further believers. Paul has a very similar theme, phrased differently. Paul seeks for the Father to be glorified in the church, as they are filled with the fullness of God and they fully grasp the full extent of God’s love for them. Paul has been explaining in the previous section that the church is the demonstration, to the power and authorities in the heavenly realms, of God’s grace and power to bring lost and divided people into love, unity and hope. Therefore, let us follow Paul’s lead in our prayers for one another – what greater thing is there to pray for  each of us than to be filled with the fullness of God and to fully appreciate God’s love. It seems to me that these are prayers God is eager to answer!

So maybe, we can model this prayer of Paul by praying for one another in these words, “Heavenly Father, we recognise your purpose and power to be glorified in the church. Fill our church and [person x] with your fullness and may they be bowled over by your love for them. To the glory of Jesus, Amen.”

With love and blessing,

Roland

“Paul …To the saints, the faithful in Christ Jesus: grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,” Ephesians 1v1-2. Paul begins this letter with a typical format for a letter of that time, he states who it is from and who is writing to, and then gives a greeting “grace and peace to you.” The words grace and peace were also typical language to use in a greeting, but here is the thing: he is not giving this greeting as coming from him, but from “God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” This is how God addresses the church and those made holy (“saints”) in Christ. This is a letter from God.

This is for us to take personally today – both as individuals and as a church of Christ in Telford. God the Father and the Lord Jesus both address us “grace and peace to you.” God speaks over you, as you approach him, “have more than you deserve (grace)” and “experience peace and wholeness,” this is his desire for us. These are wonderful words of comfort and assurance, of hope and welcome. He is not slow to address you, but gets in there at the start. This is what it means when it says “God shows his own love for us in this, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Before we said a word of repentance or faith, he spoke love and grace.

You may like to listen to “It’s grace” on our website here: www.hopeadmaston.org.uk/music/

May we each appreciate the full grace and peace of God this day,

With love and blessing,

Roland

“Because the Sovereign LORD helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore have I set my face like flint, and I know I will not be put to shame,” Isaiah 50v7. In the proceeding verses we read, “the Sovereign LORD has given me an instructed tongue … the Sovereign LORD has opened my ears …” and then we come to “the Sovereign LORD helps me.”

This passage is regarded as one of the “servant songs” in Isaiah, and in the first instance it relates to the coming Messiah who was to be the servant of the LORD. Truly our Lord Jesus could say that he had an instructed tongue to sustain the weary, he had open ears to obey his heavenly Father, and he had the help of the Lord to see his mission through. Yet, also, we see in it and in Christ a measure of our own position in Christ: he gives us too an instructed tongue, so that by the Holy Spirit’s lead we may give words of encouragement to the weary; he gives us ears and hearts to hear his word and obey it rather than rebel; and he gives us his strength so that we may keep going as Christ did. The power is in the fact that these things come from the Sovereign LORD – the one who reigns and has all power and authority.

For Christ, his attitude and his position was vindicated in his resurrection from the dead, through which he was demonstrated to be both Lord and Christ. For us also, our steady obedience to God, with his help, will be vindicated ultimately at the resurrection when we stand before Christ. Therefore we set our faces like flint, enduring any temporary shame, knowing that it is the Lord we are serving and as Isaiah continues in verse 9 “It is the Sovereign Lord who helps me. Who is he who will condemn me?”

With love and blessing,

Roland

Paul writes in Romans 10v9 “If you confess with your mouth , “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Central to Paul’s gospel message was the recognition that Jesus is Lord. It is to declare that he is the ultimate and supreme authority. Jesus is Lord of every area of creation and one day everyone will bow before him and “confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.” (Philippians 2v11)

Now is the day to make the ultimate Lord my Lord. I honour my Lord, I obey my Lord, I submit to my Lord, I am filled with awe before my Lord. If Jesus is Lord of every area of creation, then as my Lord, he is rightly Lord of every area of my life. His Lordship is not burdensome, but is liberating; it is not restricting, but freeing. To submit to his Lordship is to change from rebellion against the ultimate authority in the universe to alignment with that ultimate authority. May we, today, bow the knee and submit to his Lordship. O what a blessing we will find.

With love and blessing,

Roland

This weekend remembers the greatest event in history. It is the event towards which the BC (Before Christ) years looked as conveyed in the Old Testament. It is the event which Christ instructed us to remember in the act of communion “do this in remembrance of me.” It is the event which will be most celebrated in heaven “worthy is the Lamb who was slain.” It is the centrepiece of history, the crossroads for mankind, and exposes the heart of God.

The event involved a man who was also God laying down his life at the hands of other men. Why did he do it? “Greater love has no man than this – to lay down his life for his friends.” Jesus laid down his life, not for himself, but for the benefit of us who were lost. He also did it in obedience to his Father, “he became obedient to death, even death on a cross.”

We have every reason to be amazed and thankful for his sacrificial love towards us. May the Lord humble us so that we bow the knee at the cross and honour him, the one who came “not to be served, but to serve.” To truly honour him is for us to do likewise as he calls us to “take up your cross and follow me.” May the Holy Spirit so convict us that we cannot help but follow him.

With love and blessing,

Roland

God blesses as we partner with Him. Deuteronomy 28v12 says, “The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands.” The rain is of limited use unless there is also the work of the hands. Jesus says, “As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me: night is coming when no one can work.” John 9v4. Jesus is instructing his disciples (and himself) to work – that is to do the work which God calls us to do. The point is this – as we labour at what God gives us to do, he brings blessing. Sometimes, by his grace, he lands a blessing on our lap while we sit there, but the norm is for God, by his grace, to bless us as we do his work.

Often times, the work can seem hard and difficult, but if it is what God has called us to do, then we can expect good fruit in the end. The “passion week” for Jesus must have seemed long and hard as he moved towards the cross and to death at the hands of the soldiers – but it was the work God had called him to do. The result was phenomenal fruitfulness.

God has called us to be witnesses in the world. There are many ways in which we can do this, and whatever the way, it requires faith that God will work, but it will often also require our hard work. God brought about life through Jesus’ work of dying. Or as the Isaiah 40v31 says, “Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength, they will rise up on wings like eagles, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

With love and blessing,

Roland