Magnificent Prayer #118
Magnificent Prayer #118
[Epaphras] is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured.
Colossians 4:12
Epaphras laid himself out with the exhaustive toil and strenuous conflict of fervent prayer, that the Colossian Church might “stand firm in all the will of God.” Everywhere, everything in the early church was dependent on the maturity and unity of the people of God. It was imperative that they all came “in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13).
No premium was given to spiritual dwarfs; no encouragement to an old babyhood. The infants were to grow; and the older believers, instead of feebleness and infirmities, were to bear fruit in old age, and be fat and flourishing.
E. M. BOUNDS
Pray About It: Someday in heaven, we may be honored to meet Epaphras, this great prayer warrior who agonized for the Colossian church. God is looking for men and women today who will carry on the work of Epaphras. His reward, and ours if we pray, is the promise of standing “firm in the will of God, mature and fully assured.”
Today, seek that reward. Pray like Epaphras.
Painful and difficult prayer is more pleasing to God than that which is easy and tranquil. The grief and pain of one who tries to pray in vain, lamenting his inability to do so, makes him a victor in God’s sight and obtains for him abundant graces.
HENRY SUSO
From the book
