The scripture reading chosen for us this morning is from Colossians chapter 4 verse 2.

Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving, praying at the same time for us as well,

that God may open up to us a door for the word so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ,

for which I have also been imprisoned in order that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak.

Father, I ask for your help now as I try to unfold this text for us, and I pray that your spirit would come and would

anoint me for this work and would give a spirit of hearing and understanding

and submission to the truth guard me from and imbalance or any unhelpful statement, and grant that this would be a life-changing time for

some, Lord, as they hear this very simple and yet utterly profound word devote yourselves to prayer keeping

alert in it with Thanksgiving. Make us a praying church more than we've ever been in the year 2000 because of the work that you work in these two Sundays, last Sunday and today and on through the year.

Speak to us now, Father Father through your word I pray in Jesus

name. Amen. One thing I think is crystal clear from these verses that he just read and it's this

It is God's will for you to pray to him

It is God's will for you to pray to him. There may be things in your life where you struggle wondering what's the will of God for my relationship what's the will of God for my vocation what's the will of God for my job

but here's a place where you don't need to ask any questions on that score.

We know this is the will of God.

The will of God for you and me is that we pray to God. So before we get into what devoted means or alert means or

Thanksgiving means or any of these other things about the time or the place of the quantity of

praying, let's just sit on this for a minute. Let's just dwell here and meditate and muse.

Okay, said last Sunday and remember.

The implications of this simple statement,

God's will for you is that you pray to him.

Now, if we're going to do that, if we're going to muse on this for a minute, we have to know the meaning of the word prayer or pray because it's going

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