Prayer & Fasting: Prayer & The Will of God

3/18/2019

Colossians 1:9-14

What is it that drives your prayer life? How do you decide what or who to pray for? When do you feel your prayer life is the most vibrant? Was this a particular time or situation? Do you feel like you are connected deepest with God in prayer in a specific place? Is it something else for you?
Pastor Jeremy said that most of our prayers are driven by circumstance. What do you think he meant by this? Is it true for your prayer life?
Together, let’s read Paul’s prayer for the church in Colossae in Colossians 1:9-14

This prayer is broken down to three basic parts. The petition, the purpose, and the practicality.

Petition - Colossians 1:9
To be filled with the knowledge of God’s will.

What is God’s will? Not in the sense of what it is as related to a particular action or situation, but rather, what is God’s will? Is it the set of wishes he has for us? Is it the list of things which please him? Is it more than this, bigger than just a list of do’s and don’ts?
Pastor Jeremy broke it up into 2 categories…
- God’s will of decree. This always comes to pass because He is sovereign.
- God’s will of command. This can be broken because of our sin.
Here are some verses on the will of God. What do you think of each of these? Are there verses which give you insight into his will that are not in this brief collect? Where do you turn when you’re trying to discern his will?

All spiritual wisdom and understanding. If the final goal is to be fully pleasing to God, and the way we become fully pleasing is by being filled with spiritual wisdom and the knowledge of his will…. Then how can we be filled with knowledge of his will and spiritual wisdom? Remember, wisdom is the right application of knowledge, where do you get knowledge from? (Flesh this out and resist the one word answers!)

Purpose - Colossians 1:10a

What does this verse mean when it says we should be fully pleasing to the Lord? Pastor Jeremy asked us to think about how this command pushes against our current culture of individualism. What do you think?

Practicality - Colossians 1:10b-14
“bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;11 being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

Make a list from this verse of the good things we are to be doing and things which we have.
Discuss together why Paul has included these particular things here.
If we are to earnestly desire these things for each other, turn this list into prayer.
Take time to pray for each other in your Life Group. Try to think bigger than circumstance while you pray for each other.
Now, take time to pray this for other Christians in our church and beyond.

TAKING IT DEEPER:
While you’re still together, make a list on your phone (or a paper) and keep it with you. There are 2 parts to this list…

List the things Paul prays for the believers in Colossians 1:9-14
List the names of people or churches you will pray for this week, and pray for them using your list from #1.