4 Words and the How

I like summer and I’d always prefer to be warm than cold. All that said, even I can come to the end of my patience with oppressive heat. When your sunglasses fog up as you exit a building, you know it’s toasty! The world outside of theme parks needs to catch on to the Disney and waterpark spritzers to greet us with a little refreshment every now and then. There’s nothing like a cool mist with a fan in the heat of June.As I made my way to Colossians 4:2-3, I found the spiritual equivalent to the Disney spritzer. Sometimes in your journey with the Lord, you just need to be encouraged and know that you’re on the right path. When you’re weary, you need a little mist to keep going.[bctt tweet="Doing the right thing doesn’t always equal smooth or easy."]The funny thing about being a believer is that sometimes you’re doing the right thing and it’s still hard. Doing the right thing doesn’t always equal smooth or easy. Unfortunately, the opposite is true, too. Simply because something is easy, that doesn’t mean it’s the right thing. Maybe the most challenging part of following God is that He makes us follow. I’d love it if I could use my difficulty level as a measure. What if every time something went smoothly, it meant I was in God’s will? Like the new driver’s seats that vibrate when you’re veering out of your lane, what if any sense of frustration or difficulty was the vibration that indicated you were leaving the lane of God’s will? Wouldn’t that be terrific?But it doesn’t work that way. Often, we are weighing important decisions for our families and ourselves. It can wear us out. What are we to do? How are we to know? In the context of Paul communicating to the believers of Colossae, we find a beautifully simplistic, but profound, answer:

Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.(Colossians 4:2)

Let each word speak to that place that’s weary of bringing your burdens, questions, relationships and desires to the Lord. “Continue” means Paul knew they were already praying. He’s telling them, “I know you’re already coming before the Lord.” If you need God to reveal something to you and have already brought it before Him, don’t stop. Keep on.

• Where do you need to keep on?

Then Paul defines how to continue in two incredibly important ways. The definition of steadfast is fixed in direction or firm in purpose. Don’t second-guess if your prayers matter. Keep going in the same direction with focus. Don’t just go through the motions, but keep on with intensity.

• Where are you tempted to lose the intensity and think it mustn’t matter, or He doesn’t hear?

Paul is sharing all of this to believers. He’s told them earlier to put away the old, and then instructed them how to approach various relationships in a godly manner. Now, he adds the secret sauce that the enemy loves to steal… “being watchful in it [prayer] with thanksgiving.”Yep. He called it. In a spiritual summer, I can get so overwhelmed that I don’t watch for God’s answer, and certainly don’t come with an attitude of thanksgiving. Before we make excuses as to why we have the right to skip out on the thanksgiving, Paul reminds us that he’s writing from prison.Paul has practiced what he preaches this entire letter. He’s in his own spiritual summer, but he’s pressing on in a fixed direction. He keeps praying and he keeps a thankful heart as he looks for God’s answer.

• What can you thank God for as you wait for Him to show you His best?