Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt… Colossians 4:2-6
Dear Lord Jesus, as I try to maintain a prayerful focus during this season of Lent, I’m increasingly aware of my trigger-happy distractibility. I feel like such a prayer-pigmy. Giving heart to my prayer list soon morphs into thinking about my “to-do list,” or my grocery list, or my laundry list of all kinds of things just hanging out there screaming for my attention.
So today, I want to pray about my prayin’. When I threw out a lot of my old prayer formulas, Jesus, I didn’t really replace them with anything much better, so teach me to pray-free for a life of prayer.
Just meditating through this one passage reminds me, yet again, that everything must be gospel-driven, including prayer. Jesus, there’s no way I’m going to engage with Paul’s admonition to devote myself to prayer if I’m not increasingly aware of your devotion to me in the gospel. This call to prayer offered from a prison cell, like all of Paul’s praying, is saturated with the good news of who you are and what you’re up to in our world. Paul’s not really Rome’s prisoner, he’s your prisoner. He’s not primarily concerned about his jail door opening as much as he wants more doors for the gospel to be opened-even while he remains in chains. What an incredibly free man.
It would seem that Paul lived a life of unceasing prayer because of his unceasing preoccupation with you, Jesus. His conversations with you… with those to whom he was chained… with those who would read this letter, were full of grace because that’s what it means to listen to you in prayer. Your words to us are always full of grace, Jesus. You are constantly preaching the gospel to us by the Holy Spirit-unveiling the mystery of your glory and grace to us…
Why would I not devote myself to prayer if it’s less about a list and more about listening to you, Jesus… less about convincing you to do things and more about simply communing with you? As Lent continues, please, please burn this truth deeper and deeper into my heart. So very Amen, I pray, in the holy habitat of your name.