[Darris McNeely] The Apostle Paul was writing one of his letters to the churches. It was the letter to the Colossians that we know of this church in the city of Colossi. I think that Paul came to a point where he must have laid down the quill, the pin with which he was writing his letter. He'd been writing about a great deal of very serious, heavy topics of doctrine, about God, about Jesus Christ, about angels, and about the festivals, and why people keep the holy days, and the festivals of God, and the law. And it was pretty heavy. And then at some point, I think, as Paul may have laid down, said, "What does all this mean to the practical application of one's life? And we need to kind of make a change here?

And when we come to Colossians 4:2, we have a very interesting set of verses that I've focused on in recent days to just think about the practical application of teaching and doctrine from the Word of God when it comes down to us. In verse 2, Paul says to continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving. Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving. So he begins to talk about prayer. Now, Paul's writing this letter from a house imprisonment in Rome. He doesn't have his full liberties. And he encourages the people to continue in prayer. Now, the force of that word really has the meaning to persist, be persistent. And sometimes it is used in ancient languages to persist in what is called the siege. In the ancient times, when a army would besiege a city, the armies would go up against the walls and the closed gates of a city and a siege would endure, that would require weeks and even months of subjectivity to better down.

In Scripture, God talks about... Christ actually talked about the church battering down the gates of hell in Matthew 18. And in this idea here, Paul is saying to continue in prayer, and it's the idea of a persistent siege. Stay with it. Stay with your prayers. Keep in a sense battering against that issue that you're beseeching God for, that you're petitioning God and asking Him to intervene, for someone, for yourself, for the church, for understanding, whatever it might be, persistent. A persistent siege, steady, beating that Anvil, using that battering ram of prayer. That's what Paul is talking about here as a means by which prayer is accomplishing something. And he goes on to say, "Be vigilant in prayer." And what that means is to be watchful.

Now the Bible talks a lot about watching. Ezekiel is a watchman to Israel. One of the probably a well-known to us stories is when Jesus on the night that he was betrayed, before His death, He left His disciples in the garden, and He went a little distance to pray. And then He came back and He found His disciples all asleep. It was night. They were tired. And He said, "Couldn't you watch even an hour with me, in prayer, Peter?" And it's the same word, to be vigilant, to be watchful, in prayer with Thanksgiving. This is what Paul is saying to do, to be watchful. In other words, through prayer, through our persistent petitions to God, we're watchful of our own spiritual awareness and understanding of a relationship with God, the needs there, giving God thanks.

This is how you apply the doctrine, the teaching that the rest of Colossians talks about, the faith that we practice every day in our life. We have to be persistent in prayer. We have to be giving it with thanksgiving. And we have to be very, very vigilant about ourselves, our life, and the world and times in which we live. It's a very practical application to the teaching that we have in a relationship with God. And Paul was getting to that at this particular point. There's a lot more in these few verses we'll talk about as we go along. But I think verse 2 gives us a very important matter to continue, persistent in prayer, with thanksgiving, always watching.

Thats BT Daily. Join us next time.