Discipleship Tools
This is not a prayer list that never changes. Each series gives us a direction to pray in. We pray the letter we are preaching. When Paul tells the Colossians what he asks God for on their behalf, we ask it too, for ourselves, for our families, and for Cleburne.
Three movements. Take one a day and cycle through the week, or pray all three in one sitting. There is no wrong way. The point is that your praying and your hearing are pointed at the same thing.
Colossians · Rooted / All of Him · July 19 to August 16
Colossians 1:9 to 14 · Colossians 2:6 to 7
Paul does not pray that the Colossians would try harder. He prays that they would be filled with the knowledge of God's will, and that the knowing would produce the walking. Knowledge first. Fruit follows. That order matters, and it is the order of the whole letter.
So do not open by listing your failures. Open by asking to see Him more clearly. Ask for a root system. The fruit is not something you manufacture. It is something a rooted thing does.
Colossians 3:12 to 17 · Colossians 3:18 to 4:1
Paul turns to the household last, not first, and he tells them to put on compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. He says to bear with one another and forgive as the Lord forgave you. Notice the standard. Not as they deserve. As you were forgiven.
Pray this over the people in your house by name. Especially the one who is hardest to be patient with this week. Especially if that one is you.
Colossians 4:2 to 6 · Colossians 1:27
Paul asks for two things at the end of the letter. That God would open a door for the word, and that he would make it clear when the door opens. He does not ask for courage first. He asks for the door, and for clarity. Then he tells them to walk in wisdom toward outsiders and to let their speech be gracious.
Pray for the doors in this city. The neighbor, the coworker, the checkout line, the school pickup. And pray to be ready when one opens, because Christ in you is the hope of glory, and He is the hope of Cleburne too.