Watchful and Thankful
Devote yourselves to prayer … Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders Colossians 4:2,5
In this final part of the letter to the Colossians Paul concentrates on two of the most crucial areas in the lives of these young believers – their prayer life and their public testimony.
You can’t have a valuable public testimony without a valuable prayer life. The Christian whose life contradicts their testimony is usually prayerless. The Christian whose public testimony is strong usually has a prayer life that’s equally strong.
In relation to their prayer life, Paul says two things. First, be ‘watchful and thankful’ (4:2) Believe God hears and answers prayer, and when He does, thank Him for it. Second, pray that just as the word has done its work in their community, so it will continue to do its work through his writing and speaking. Hearts have to open if the word, like seed, is going to be planted. And for that to happen, God has to intervene. And for that to happen, people have to pray. ‘And pray for us … that God may open a door for our message …’ (4:3)
Do you ever pray for the doorway to be opened for God’s word as you speak it, or as it’s spoken in church meetings?
In relation to their public testimony, Paul emphasises how they speak to others. ‘Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt …’ (4:6).
Salt made bland tasting food tasty. Our conversations with others should make them want to hear more, not less. It means listening closely and not talking over people to ‘win points.’
Salt was used as a preservative to keep food from decaying. Our conversations should always be inspired by the realisation that God reached out to us when there was nothing in us to attract Him. We need to reach out to others in just the same way. This is how to have a conversation that’s ‘always full of grace …’
It’s important we know what we’re talking about so we ‘know how to answer everyone’ (4:6) but it’s useless winning the argument if you lose the person.
So, prayer and public testimony. You can’t have one without the other and we desperately need both!
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