Colossians 1: 12 - 14
Prayer continued ...
If you are using the NIV translation, it will appear that we stopped mid sentence yesterday. Paul's sentences can be quite complicated! I would certainly hate to have to diagram some of them - and this is one of those that would challenge the best English students among us, of which I am not one!
Remember, Paul has prayed that these believers have the strength from God to be able to endure circumstances in their lives and to be patient with the people in their lives. He then adds that they joyfully (not begrudgingly!) give thanks to God. Is your prayer salted with thanksgiving? Do you keep you eyes open for the hand of God in your life so that you can immediately offer thanksgiving to Him? It takes practice ... daily ... moment by moment. It takes practice especially when circumstances or people are particularly trying and difficult. The lesson for you and I? PRACTICE!!!
Paul offers two reasons why this thanksgiving is natural and appropriate. The first is that God has given us a share in the inheritance with His Son. Remember, inheritance is always reserved for close family members. Remember - "adopted into the royal family"! God qualifies you - not your family tree, not your good behavior, not your own righteousness, not your church affiliation, not your race, your nationality, your bank account, your talents, etc. God does it. Never miss that!
The second reason that thanksgiving is the natural overflow of the believers heart is that God has placed us somewhere ... Paul shows us where. The KJV of this passage uses this language: "God has translated us" ... This is an interesting Greek word. It means "to bring over" and is the verb methistemi. According to Barclay "In the ancient world, when one empire won a victory over another, it was the custom to take the population of the defeated country and to transfer them lock, stock and barrel to some other land." This is the concept that Paul uses to describe what God has done for us. He has taken us, "lock, stock and barrel" from one place to another.
Look carefully at the place God has taken us, as believers ... where He has translated us ...
1. From darkness to light - Are you still groping around in the dark? You don't have to be. Neither do I. We can live in the light because Jesus is "the light of the world". (John 8:12) Walk in Jesus and you walk in the light. We don't have to stumble our way through life. We can see!
2. From slavery to freedom - Paul talks about redemption which is the word used in the ancient world for the emancipation of a slave. Without God we are all slaves to our fears, to our sins, to our own helplessness and to our faults. Jesus comes as the quintessential liberator! Are you free? Do you experience the freedom Christ offers in day to day living?
3. From condemnation to forgiveness - what indescribable joy fills our hearts when we fully accept and "feel" the forgiveness of God, being loved and accepted in spite of our past, our failure, our rebellions. Paul says in Romans 8:1 "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Paul, with his sordid history of self-righteousness, of persecution, of assent to murder, hammers this point home! God translate us from condemnation to forgiveness. Praise God!
4. From the power of Satan to the power of God - a new kingdom is present for the people of God. A new ruler. A new domain.
How can our hearts not overflow with thanksgiving to this God! Believer, remind yourself day by day, even moment by moment, that THIS is where you now live! This is where the God of heaven has placed you!
And REJOICE!
It is our natural tendency to sit back and let God make the first move, to let our praise be a response rather than an invitation. Your remarks about the places God has taken us as believers remind me of Jesus' words in John 14: "I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am." (emphasis mine)
ReplyDeleteSome thoughts:
Psalm 22:3 speaks of God as being "enthroned as the Holy One... the praise of Israel." (NIV) In place of the passive voice employed by the NIV, the King James uses the active verb inhabits (well okay, "inhabitest!"): God inhabits the praise of His people!
Thanksgiving is an important component of praise. I have so much to be thankful for -- He has prepared a place for me! If I'm having a difficult time seeing His hand at work in my life, perhaps the question ought to be "Have I prepared a place for Him?"
The lyrics of a contemporary song refer to David "rebuilding a temple of praise." Some people have a problem singing that phrase, pointing out that Solomon, rather than David, built the physical temple in Israel... and that is true. Solomon's temple, 7 years in the making, was destroyed in 586 BC. However... each of us can, at a moment's notice, build a "temple of praise" for our Lord to inhabit -- one which no outside force can destroy... and voilà! Praise morphs from reactive response into proactive invitation!
Think about it -- it'll mess with your mind!