Pray continually.

1 Thessalonians 5:17 is probably my favorite verse in the Bible. It's short and gets straight to the point: "Pray continually." Two simple words that, when put into action, can accomplish the impossible.

I am currently studying the book of Galatians (click here to see my notes up to this point), but God put Colossians 4:2-6 on my mind today. For now I just want to focus on verse 2. It says, "Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful." At first, I read that and thought, "Okay, great. I need to pray a lot and keep an eye out for things to pray about." But I missed the word "thankful." I never really understood why thankfulness was thrown into this verse until now. And when I finally understood, the whole verse came together for me.

Paul tells us to be watchful in prayer, which does not simply mean that we should be aware when something major comes up that we should pray about. It means that we should go looking for things to pray about. Look at a picture or listen to music, and pray about whatever you think of. Trust me: look, and you'll find something. In fact, I just thought of something right now, just by listening to the sound of construction down the street. And something else popped into my head as I was thinking about college life. If you're reading this now, I'll make things easy for you: please pray for me, that I would stay strong in my faith here at the number one party school in America, and that I would have the boldness to step out and share the Word with others here; and pray that someone would listen and be influenced by the changing power of Christ, whether it be through me or through someone else. (That's actually Paul's request in Colossians 4:3-4.)

But now we get to the part about thankfulness. What exactly does Paul mean by saying that we should be thankful in prayer? Obviously, we should thank God whenever something good happens. We should thank Him when someone turns his or her life over to Christ, when we make a good grade on a test we weren't prepared for, when we win a prize we were almost guaranteed to not win. But there's more to this verse than that. I think Paul's point in telling the Colossians to be thankful in prayer was this: look for something to pray about, and be thankful that you found something when you find it. Be thankful that God has given you something to pray about. Be thankful that He has given you the opportunity to be a positive influence in someone's life, whether directly or indirectly. And be thankful that He answers all our prayers. (They may not always be answered the way we would like, but as we grow stronger in Christ, we learn to be thankful even when things don't go our way, and we allow God's will to take over our own.)

So I thank God for anyone who reads this, and for the opportunity to pray for you, as well as for those who don't read this.

Until next time, God bless!

Michael

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"I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing." ~ 1 Timothy 2:8

"I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to live is Christ and to die is gain." ~ Philippians 1:20-21