Colossians
Friday, June 11, 2004
My Prayer Today
Heavenly Father, Thank You for Your grace and peace, which truly pass all human understanding. As the Apostle Paul reminds us, grace and peace, come from you, since You alone are the giver of grace, and Your grace alone establishes true peace in our lives. I pray that You will fill me with the Holy Spirit that I may experience the fullness of Your grace, that I may know beyond any shadow of doubt the free, unmerited favor that You bestow upon me, through the saving death of Jesus on the cross of Calvary. I pray that You will make me constantly aware that apart from Your grace, I will never know lasting peace, that sense that all is well regardless of the circumstances around me. Glorify Yourself in my life today, by granting Your grace and peace. This I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
God's Word For Me Today
Colossians 1:1-6
1This letter is from Paul, chosen by God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and from our brother Timothy.
2It is written to God’s holy people in the city of Colosse, who are faithful brothers and sisters in Christ.
May God our Father give you grace and peace.
3We always pray for you, and we give thanks to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 4for we have heard that you trust in Christ Jesus and that you love all of God’s people. 5You do this because you are looking forward to the joys of heaven—as you have been ever since you first heard the truth of the Good News. 6This same Good News that came to you is going out all over the world. It is changing lives everywhere, just as it changed yours that very first day you heard and understood the truth about God’s great kindness to sinners.
Reflecting on God’s Word
When have you been most aware of God’s grace and peace?
A Deeper Exploration of God’s Word
After reading today’s Scripture for six times what did you notice in today’s reading that you hadn’t noticed before?
What is the single, most important point that you take from today’s reading?
Understanding God’s Word
What do you understand about God’s written word now, that you didn’t at the beginning of the week?
Applying God’s Word to Our Lives
What is the most important application of Colossians 1:1-6 in your life today?
Thoughts...Grace and Peace...
The Apostle Paul includes the phrase “grace and peace,” in most of his letters, either at the beginning or in the closing. Why? It seems that of all people, Paul, was the most likely to understand the fullness of God’s grace, and thus the extent of God’s peace. Why do I say that? Because, Paul had been a Pharisee. He had spent his life learning the Mosaic law and seeking to develop a righteousness based on living it out to perfection. For all of his education and effort, he failed. He could not live up to the code. He tells us this clearly and emphatically in Romans 7. Thus, when Jesus met Paul on the road to Damascus and drew Paul to Himself, Paul realized for the first time, that salvation was not based on works, but on the freely offered grace of God in and through Jesus Christ! Paul’s life would never be the same. While he shared the Good News with the same enthusiasm and drive he once put into learning and living the Law of Moses, now He was living from gratitude for God’s grace, rather than seeking to gain God’s favor. Each of us lives so much more fully when we are living out of a heart overflowing with gratitude, than we are living out of fear of making a mistake, and calling God’s wrath upon us! Once Paul realized the extent of God’s grace, and only then, his life was filled with peace—true peace. Paul’s peace continued in the midst of peril, imprisonment, feast or famine—literally, and even in the face of death. That’s because his peace was based on the security of knowing that God would truly never leave him nor forsake him. As we go about our daily lives we can have the same peace Paul experienced—in the same way he gained it: by relying on God’s grace in and through Jesus! God’s grace is the key to a life lived to its fullest and overflowing with His peace. May we let go of control (or seeking to control) right now, and let God’s grace fill us peace!