Devotion, Open Doors and Salt
Colossians 4:2-6
Three things stood out to me from this passage:
Devotion
Verse 2- ‘Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.’
Prayer is not passive, it is active. It is an exciting thing to be part of and requires action from us!
Devotion looks like something. Devotion to a car means regularly washing it, tidying it, replacing things in it. Devotion to a person means seeing them, listening to them and journeying with them. Devotion to coffee means choosing good coffee and making it each day (this one is for me!).
I wonder how you would describe your prayer life? Devotion? If so, that’s great! And if not, there is grace and we can grow.
Setting a time, a place and having a plan for your prayer life is a sure way to remain devoted. Here are 2 practical things for you to action:
1) Corporate prayer and worship at All Nations Church, weekday evenings during the fast from 7-9pm.
https://allnationswv.churchcenter.com/calendar/event/174657649
2) Write a prayer list with things or people to pray for each day of the week. For example:
Monday- family
Tuesday- friends
Wednesday- neighbours
Thursday- colleagues
Friday- city
Saturday- nation
Sunday- world
Father God, help me to grow in desire and devotion in prayer. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Open Doors
Verse 3- ‘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.’
At the time of writing this, Paul was in chains, imprisoned! Yet he still asked the Colossians to pray that he would have opportunities, open doors, to proclaim Christ. It makes our reasons for not sharing Christ seem a little feeble when you think about how Paul was imprisoned and still yearned to share the gospel!
A while ago, my hairdresser told me about an accident she had been in which hurt her back. I asked to pray for her, and as I did, she started to get emotional and say that she ‘felt something.’ It was a great open door for me to talk about Jesus.
Where are your open doors of opportunity? The barbers, old school friends, a colleague?
Father God, open doors for me this week and help me to obey your leading. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Salt
Verse 6- ‘Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.’
Salt here had important cultural and historical significance in the ancient world. It was a valuable commodity, used for preservation and flavour. Paul is encouraging our conversations to stand out, to be impactful and to taste of something different to the world.
Fun fact: I have been experiencing leg cramps at night. Dr Google suggested drinking salty water before bed, and so I have been experimenting with this. I can definitely taste the difference between salty water and normal water!
Let us speak and represent the Kingdom of God in such a way that people can tell there is a different flavour about us! A smile, extra kindness, extra grace and extra godly wisdom.
- Susie Raybould