“He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured.”  Colossians 4:12 (NIV)

The Apostle Paul is providing his final greetings in his letter to the Colossians and is commending Epaphras who has been serving as Paul’s representative in Colosse for his continuous and persevering prayer.   

There is something about the words “wrestling in prayer” that portray a continuous, dogged, and persevering effort to pray.  Jesus uses the story of a widow who continued to seek her rights from an unjust judge as an example to encourage us to be persistent in our prayer.

My wife and I have experienced numerous examples of how our persistent prayers over many years have brought about positive results.  The most recent example was in connection with our oldest grandson’s wedding on top of Granby Mountain in Ganby, Colorado a couple of weeks ago.  

Except for two sets of grandparents and some small children, all 130 guests had to use a ski lift to get to the location of the wedding ceremony.  There was no shelter at the top of the mountain.  An afternoon rain shower would have been disastrous.  We prayed continuously that God would give us good weather.  We learned that both sets of parents of the bride and groom and the other grandparents were also praying for good weather for the ceremony and reception. 

Thank you, Lord for answered prayer!!!    

Do you “wrestle in prayer” for the circumstances and people in your life?

Wedding Picture of Andrew and Tara’s Wedding and our family

“He was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole family.” (Acts 16:34)

Long term joy is a precious gift.  There are many things that give us joy for the moment like watching our children win a sporting event, getting a salary increase or promotion in our work or having a get-away weekend with our spouse.  But long-term joy is a gift from God and usually involves a decision to believe in God and seek a relationship with him and his son, Jesus Christ. 

Many years ago, some nuns prayed over me in Briar Cliff Manor, New York to experience the release of the power of the Holy Spirit in my life.  While I had been a practicing Catholic and knew about God, I’m not sure I had experienced having a personal relationship with him.  As a result of those prayers, I felt like I was experiencing the presence of God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit in a way I had never experienced before.  I was bursting with Joy!  Not even driving home in a blinding snowstorm on the hilly roads of upper Westchester County, New York, could deter my joy. 

The above verse describes what happened to a jailer after an earthquake had thrown open the gates of the jail in which Paul and Silas had been imprisoned.  The jailer was about to kill himself, thinking the prisoners had escaped.  Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself!  We are all here.”  The jailer asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”  Paul replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved – you and your household.”  (Acts 16:16-40)

The jailer may have been thinking primarily about his physical life, but Paul was thinking  not only about his physical life but his soul as well – his and his family.  Jesus told us in John’s gospel that if we invited him into our lives to have a relationship with him, his joy would be in us and our joy would be complete. (John 15:11)

Have you invited Jesus to have a relationship with you so you can experience lasting joy?

“For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.” Romans 10:10

The heart that St. Paul is referring to is not our physical heart, but a non-physical aspect of our being related more to our spirit and what makes us the person we are.  Are we patient, kind, loving and other-focused, or are we self-focused, easily angered, with little regard for others. 

As St. Paul notes, faith comes from the heart.  While God also creates us with an intellect that can impact our choices, it is the heart that leads us to God.  “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength.” (Duet. 6:5) There are seventy-seven references to the heart in the concordance of the New International Version of the Bible, and none of them are referring to our physical heart.

Our intellect can help us learn about God, but it is the heart from which we believe in God and act on that belief. 

One evening as I was driving to a meeting I came upon a man who was just hit by a pickup truck as he was pushing a grocery cart across the street.  I immediately pulled into an adjacent parking lot and ran over to him. He asked me if he was going to die.  Without pondering my response, I said, “No, you are not going to die.” 

I put my hand on his shoulder and started praying with him as a crowd began to gather.  The ambulance crew arrived and put him on a stretcher board to take him to a nearby hospital.  Since I didn’t know his name, I was never able to learn whether he lived or died.

In later reflecting on the moment, I wondered whether I should have told him he wasn’t going to die, since I didn’t know the nature of his injuries.  But then I came to realize that I was God’s delegate that evening, the first person on the scene.  My heart prompted me to run to him, respond to his question, and encourage and pray with him.  While I have ignored my heart on occasion, fortunately this evening I listened to it. 

Do you respond to your heart when it prompts you to act?