The Upper Room Daily Devotional of Nashville, Tennessee, United States “Moments with God” for Sunday, 28 December 2014 - Scripture: Colossians 1:3-12

The Upper Room Daily Devotional of Nashville, Tennessee, United States “Moments with God” for Sunday, 28 December 2014 - Scripture: Colossians 1: Working in His Orchard
3-5 Our prayers for you are always spilling over into thanksgivings. We can’t quit thanking God our Father and Jesus our Messiah for you! We keep getting reports on your steady faith in Christ, our Jesus, and the love you continuously extend to all Christians. The lines of purpose in your lives never grow slack, tightly tied as they are to your future in heaven, kept taut by hope.
5-8 The Message is as true among you today as when you first heard it. It doesn’t diminish or weaken over time. It’s the same all over the world. The Message bears fruit and gets larger and stronger, just as it has in you. From the very first day you heard and recognized the truth of what God is doing, you’ve been hungry for more. It’s as vigorous in you now as when you learned it from our friend and close associate Epaphras. He is one reliable worker for Christ! I could always depend on him. He’s the one who told us how thoroughly love had been worked into your lives by the Spirit.
9-12 Be assured that from the first day we heard of you, we haven’t stopped praying for you, asking God to give you wise minds and spirits attuned to his will, and so acquire a thorough understanding of the ways in which God works. We pray that you’ll live well for the Master, making him proud of you as you work hard in his orchard. As you learn more and more how God works, you will learn how to do your work. We pray that you’ll have the strength to stick it out over the long haul—not the grim strength of gritting your teeth but the glory-strength God gives. It is strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy, thanking the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that he has for us.
Pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.[1 Thessalonians 5:17-18 (NIV)]
Every Sunday my church takes time for anyone who has had an inspiring experience with God during the week to tell the congregation about it. One Sunday, a woman who had volunteered to weed our church flower bed told us how she watched people as they walked past our downtown church. She said she wondered about each person — what they did, if they were happy or troubled, what their life story was. Then she offered a brief prayer for those she saw, asking God to bless them, to ease their burdens, and to grant them peace.
Recently, I had been feeling that my prayer life was in a rut, praying over and over for the same friends, family members, and concerns. Inspired by this woman’s prayer practice, I decided to pray every morning and night for a week for a specific person, whether or not I knew him or her. It might be a visitor to my church, someone I read about in the newspaper, or someone who caught my attention while I went about my day.
I hope that those for whom I pray feel God’s presence in their lives. I know that praying for someone who will never know of my prayers surely brings God’s joy to me!
The Author: Susan Griswold (Colorado, USA)
Thought for the Day: Asking God’s blessing for someone else also blesses us.
Prayer: Dear heavenly Father, bless those we pass by as we go about our lives. Tend to their needs and give them your peace. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Prayer focus: Friends and strangers who cross our path
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