Today’s verse comes from a letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to the Church in Colossae. Paul wrote to correct and guard against false teachers who were urging the people away from the centrality of Christ. No other epistle is quite so eloquent and devoted to driving home the ultimate need and central focus of Christ in the Christian walk. Paul wrote to help clear up some theological issues and also to help the people to have some practical guidelines on what it looked like to live as a follower of Christ. 

Today’s verse comes from just such a section. In the previous chapter, Paul has just been urging the believers in Colossae to “put on the new self,” turning from their old ways and choosing to fully adopt the identity of a child of God. As an overflow of that, he explains to them some important principles of righteous living. It is not meant to be read as a giant to-do list or a book of do’s and don’ts. But instead, we should be inspired by our new identity and eagerly choosing to walk in the overflow of that. 

And it’s not surprise that Paul urges them to be prayerful. I love what he writes here: “Devote yourselves to prayer.” The word that is translated here “devote yourself” is the Greek word proskartereo which means “to be steadfastly attentive unto”, “to persevere and not to faint” or “to show oneself courageous for”. I just love that so much!  

Essentially what Paul is writing here is to pray, even when it’s hard, pray when you feel like you don’t have much left, pray when you are weak, and pray when you are strong. Essentially, make prayer a part of every season of your life, no matter if it’s easy or difficult.  

He goes on to tell them to be alert in it, meaning that we don’t just pray mindless prayers. But instead, we are to pay special attention to our prayer lives, listening for God to speak and being open to what He is teaching us. God does not want prayer that doesn’t engage our minds or prayer that is said simply to check a box. He wants prayer that is a conversation where we bring our full attention to Him and meet Him with expectation. 

And finally, prayer is to always be girded with thanksgiving. It’s all too easy for us to come to God with grumbling hearts, especially when times are tough. But there is always something to be thankful for, even if all you can thank God for in that moment is that you have the opportunity to pray and know that He listens.