The Knowledge of God’s Will
Colossians 1:1-14
The key and central phrase in Paul’s prayer for the Colossians is that God would ‘fill them with the knowledge of his will’ (v.9). This is not a prayer for some extra sense perception to access things otherwise hidden in the mind of God. Rather, it’s simply a prayer to come to a better and deeper knowledge of what God has already revealed about what he wants for our lives. We need such prayer because of our tendency to overlook and even resist how scripture confronts us and calls for change in our daily lives. The purpose for this increase in knowledge is so that we will live in ways that are more pleasing to God (v.10). The vast majority of the Christian life doesn’t come down to a difficult or mysterious discernment of what God wants (though that is definitely part of it). The majority of the Christian life comes down to knowing and desiring to do what he’s said. This is a prayer for a thriving church that simply has more of that.