Jump Start # 2046

Colossians 4:2 “Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving.”

Prayer is an essential link to our faith in God. Prayer is talking to God. All relationships need communication. It’s the way that we connect with God. The disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray. In the sermon on the mount, Jesus outlined a simple prayer.

But here, Paul etches three reminders about prayer.

First, be devoted to it. Dedicate yourselves to prayer. We remember the apostles in Acts 6 told the congregation to appoint seven men to take care of the widows so they could devote themselves to prayer and the ministry of the word. Prayer is easy to do and it’s easy to put off. Unlike studying the Bible, you don’t need paper, pen, books to pray. You don’t need to be seated to pray. You can pray anywhere. You can pray all the time. Praying in the car. Praying at work. Praying at school. Praying in public. You don’t have to make a show of it, but, like Daniel, it’s not bad to let others see and know what you are doing. Yet, prayer is easy to put off. Other things seem to take the place of prayer. We rush around so much, that sweet hour of prayer is most often, just a few quick seconds of prayer.

Most congregations will spend a quarter looking at the subject of prayer. We’ll talk about the prayers in the Bible. We’ll hand out little reminders of who to pray for. Paul’s words here, be devoted to it. Stick to it. There are so many that need prayers. There are so many things to pray for.

Second, keeping alert in it. That’s interesting. One wonders why the Holy Spirit led Paul to write that line. Do we tend to day dream during prayers? Do we tend to think about other things during prayers? Do we find ourselves not focusing upon God when we pray? Keep alert in prayer. We tell young drivers to keep alert and don’t be distracted by phones and radios. Teachers try to keep students alert in the classrooms. Preachers want a congregation that is alert while they are delivering their sermons. Keep alert in prayer. Remember who you are talking to. Remember respect, reverence and honor as you address God.

What’s a good way to keep alert? I’m not sure what Paul had in mind, but I have found shorter more specific prayers work well. Pin point your prayer. Our prayers do not have to touch every item to please God. This is true even of public prayers. The first prayer in worship and the last prayer in worship do not have to repeat each other. The first prayer is setting the stage for us to worship God. Focus upon that. The honor of having God in our presence. The value of His word. The importance of following God. The last prayer of worship is sending us out into the world. We need to be safe. We need to be strong. We need to keep the essence of God within us. Thinking about why I am praying will help guide those prayers.

Keep alert. So simple, yet needed back then and needed today.

Third, with an attitude of thanksgiving. Attitude. Attitude is like noses, we all have one. Our attitudes can soar or they can sink the ship. Negative, complaining, “do we have to” spirit, dampens any activity. It kills birthday parties. It can ruin worship. It makes things tense, miserable and unhealthy. Attitude. Yet, the opposite is also true. An attitude that wants to do things brings sunshine, hope and joy to any setting. Friends that want to be together. Grandkids that want to visit grandma. Disciples that want to worship God. Attitude is important. So many of the works of the flesh, found in Galatians, are attitudes. The thing about attitudes is that we choose our attitudes. We can not control the weather or the world around us, but we certainly can control what those things do to us on the inside. My good friend, the late Barbara Johnson, often wrote in her books, “Pain is inevitable, but misery is optional.” Attitude.

Paul puts attitude in prayer. Keeping an attitude of thanksgiving. He didn’t just say, ‘be thankful.’ Nor, did he say, ‘Remember to thank God.’ But, keep an attitude of thanksgiving. Attitude is the dish that contains the food. Our prayers are built around a spirit of thankfulness. We recognize how blessed we are. We are thankful for God. We are thankful that He loves us. We are thankful to be forgiven. We are thankful that He hears us. We are thankful to be numbered among His people. Are you seeing the tone of this. We continue this on and on, and we find ourselves counting our blessings and naming them one by one. We find ourselves asking less and thanking more. We come to understand how much God is in our lives and how dependent we are upon Him.

An attitude of thankfulness. Wouldn’t it be awesome to have one prayer on Sunday to be designated a Thanksgiving prayer. Not praying for the sick. Not praying for the preacher to remember. Not praying for growth. But thanking the Lord. Thank Him for us. Thank Him for worship. Thank Him for healthy babies. Thank Him for the journey of senior saints. Thank Him for being patient with us. Thank Him for changing us. Thank Him for not giving up on us. Thank Him for His promises. Thank Him for His word.

An attitude of thankfulness. Is it wrong to ask God for things? No. Be careful what you ask. New cars, fat bank accounts and things like that do not interest God. Spiritual things, such as opportunities to help. New ways to serve. Eyes opened to see Scriptures. A closer walk with Him. Now, you are understanding God and what He wants. World peace? Won’t ever happen until people are walking with Him. Sunny days? Sometimes we need rain and storms and even pig pens to bring us back to Him.

Be devoted. Stay alert. Have an attitude of thankfulness. Now, go pray. Those three simple ingredients sets the tone and shapes our prayers. How interesting it is that we need God’s help just to talk to Him. We wouldn’t know how to do this had it not been God guiding us.

Be devoted. Stay alert. Have an attitude of thankfulness. It doesn’t take 13 weeks to figure that out. Got a family? Thank the Lord for them and then pray about each one, one by one. Part of a church? Be thankful for that and then pray for each one, one by one. That’ll keep you busy for a while. And guess what? While you are praying, being thankful and be devoted, Satan can’t find a way into your heart. Things just work that way when you do things God’s way.

Roger

Jump Start # 482 

 Colossians 4:2 Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving

  This is a great passage! Devote yourselves to prayer is what Paul says. Stay with it. Be committed to prayer. Use prayer. Make prayer a regular habit with you. The apostle links two other great thoughts to prayer—first, keeping alert in it. I think we’d say today, “stay focused.” Prayer is powerful, handle with care. There are so many things to pray for and about, that a person ought to keep alert. The other aspect to all of this is to do this with an “attitude of thanksgiving.”

  Right there Paul tells us that thankfulness is an attitude. It’s not about stuff. The guy with the most stuff will be the most thankful—not at all. It is an attitude that one walks with in life. One chooses to be thankful or one chooses not to be, usually by not thinking about it at all. The thankful attitude. An attitude of gratitude.

  We know how attitude works—it’s like food coloring, it has a way of getting into something and coloring it all. That’s the way attitudes work. Our attitude affects how we see other people, it affects our relationship with God, how we approach work, our we deal with our failures—attitude colors our life.

  Someone who is sour and grumpy and miserable all the time has a bad attitude. He may not understand how things are, but he’s not much joy to be around. Others can walk through one mess after another but maintain an incredible attitude. Why is it that way? Because we do not choose what happens to us, but we do choose how it will affect us. Pain is inevitable, but misery is optional, my good friend Barbara Johnson, used to write in her books. How true this is.

  An attitude of thanksgiving. Choosing to be thankful—first, in our prayers. It’s one thing to always be asking God for help or forgiveness, we sure need that, but it’s something else to pray with an attitude of thanksgiving. God is so good to us. I wonder how many times you have prayed to God already in your life? Have you thought about that? I wonder how many times God has been there for you in your life? How many times do you think He has forgiven you? A dozen? a thousand? A million times? You’re alive today—that’s reason to be thankful. If you’re reading this, you have a computer and electricity, and eyes and a mind to just name a few things.

  Have you noticed how easy folks complain? I guess I’m complaining about the complainers! One person starts in and soon everyone jumps on his band wagon. The weather stinks…the government is dumb…the Colts are hopeless…woe is me and you’ll find others singing that same song. It’s easy to complain. Anyone can do that. It’s harder to keep that attitude of thanksgiving, that attitude of gratitude.

  Keeping an attitude of thanksgiving tends to make you see things brighter and better. It finds hope and more than anything else, it puts confidence and trust in God. God is on the throne, always has been. No matter how dark the skies get, nor how bad things are, God is still in charge. That alone is a major reason to be thankful! Can you imagine what the day would be like if God decided to step out of the throne for a while? Or worse, He put someone like me in His place? Gracious—talk about a mess. He doesn’t do that. No king, no apostle, no prophet, no preacher, no politician sits on that throne—only God. Nothing is greater than God. Jesus proved that. Sickness? He cured it. Demons? He cast them out. Death? He talked to the dead and they were resurrected. Storms? He stopped them immediately. More people than food? Not a problem for Jesus. Over and over He showed that God can do all things.

  This is the God that loves you so much and wants you to pray to Him. This is the God that has been patient with you, working with you and working through you. This is the God that can’t wait until you come to His home, Heaven.

  An attitude of thanksgiving. It starts in our prayers but it carries over in our conversations and our outlook on life. Sometimes a person just needs an attitude adjustment—a little course correction, especially in the area of thankfulness. We tend to forget to count those blessings. Maybe it’s not so much forgetting as it is not sure where to start, there are so many!

  It all starts with a simple, “Thank you, Lord!”

Roger