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knowing God

Knowing God Better #1 From good intentions to healthy spiritual outcomes

Knowing God Better #1 turning good intentions into healthy spiritual outcomes

An optimist stays up until midnight to see the New Year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves. Were you sitting up last night making sure that 2016 sank into the distant past? Or were you sitting up excited about all that 2017 has in stall for you?

I want to suggest to you that’s Paul’s prayer for his friends at Colossae is a great way to start the year. In his prayer Paul made three requests that will help us turn good intentions into healthy spiritual outcomes.

 

Colossians 1:9-14 (NLT) 9 So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. 10 Then the way you live will always honour and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better. 11 We also pray that you will be strengthened with all his glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you be filled with joy, 12 always thanking the Father. He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people, who live in the light. 13 For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, 14 who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.

Introduction
Robyn and I received a letter in the post one year. It was from the real estate agent that sold us our home. In it was a picture of our home when we bought it; with a note saying “It has changed a lot!”
Thinking back, I would have to agree with her…
… we still had the most unwholesome looking letterbox in the street, but our real estate lady was right… “It has changed a lot”.

It reminded me that unless we are intentional about our lives we can end up like a rundown garden – plenty of potential, even lots of good intentions – but short on positive outcomes.
So the good intention of getting to know God better requires some consideration, some intentionality to it – or it will remain like most of our new year’s resolutions (about 8% have any success) – good intentions.

I want to direct our attention to Paul’s letter to the first‑century Christians at Colossae. In his prayer Paul made three requests that will help us turn good intentions into healthy spiritual outcomes:

  1. He prayed for Spiritual Intelligence v. 9
  2. He prayed for Applied Obedience v. 10
  3. He prayed for Power to Perform His will vv. 11,12