Colossians 1:9-23 For this
reason, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased praying for you and
asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God's will in all spiritual
wisdom and understanding, 10 so that you may lead lives worthy of the
Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you
grow in the knowledge of God. 11 May you be made strong with all the strength
that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure
everything with patience, while joyfully 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled
you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. 13 He has
rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of
his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness
of sins. 15
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; 16 for in him
all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers--all things have been created
through him and for him. 17 He himself is before all things, and in him
all things hold together. 18 He is the head of the body, the church; he is
the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first
place in everything. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was
pleased to dwell, 20 and through him God was pleased to reconcile
to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through
the blood of his cross. 21 And you who were once estranged and hostile
in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his fleshly body
through death, so as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable
before him-- 23
provided that you continue securely established and steadfast in the
faith, without shifting from the hope promised by the gospel that you heard,
which has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven. I, Paul, became a
servant of this gospel.
So I had a busy day today – and did not have time
to get to this devotion. It was the kind of day that made me want to grumble
about the way everybody wanted something from me … “and I never had the time to
do the things that I wanted to do”.
So it was with some irony that I read the words
from vs 11 “May
you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power,
and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully giving
thanks to the Father”. I did not really give thanks
today – I just was grumpy! Yet I found the strength to get through everything
that was expected of me. So I now pause to give thanks to God. And I invite you
to read this passage as a celebration of the life we have been given.
Sixth Sunday after Trinity
37 The Church for
Others
The Scripture passage for the day is drawn from Reuben Job and
Norman Shawchuck, A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and other Servants,
(Nashville, The Upper Room 1983), 231.
This reflection is from my own devotional exercises for the day.
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