A few months ago, we had our missions conference at my church. One of our missionaries was a missionary to Australia. Until that prayer breakfast, pretty much all I knew about Australia was what I had seen from “The Crocodile Hunter.”
During a Men’s Prayer Breakfast, this missionary shared a passage from Colossians about prayer and how we should pray for each other. I highlighted it in my Bible app but forgot to follow up with it and further study it. My church recently used this as part of our congregational reading during our worship service. I was reminded about how cool of a passage this was, and it challenged me to make it part of my prayer life. It also reminded me that this is how I could be praying for my Saints team. People often ask me, “How can I pray for your team?” The usual answers include things like, “Pray that God works in the hearts of the inmates”, “Pray that we would be able to get in to the facilities this summer” or my favorite, “Pray for traveling mercies”. I did not understand what that really meant until we got a team bus! Those are good things to pray for, but I think it is useful to take a look at how Paul prays. The Apostle Paul is passionate about this Colossian church and he not only lets them know that he is praying for them but also lets them know HOW he is praying for them.
Colossians 1:9-14 (ESV)
9 And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy;12 giving thanks[d] to the Father, who has qualified you[e] to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Pray for the Team as a Priority
I often get caught up in the hurry-up offense of a busy day or I will just get lazy and not take time to pray well. Shamefully, often times my prayers are short and inconsistent, but, that is not what we see from Paul in this passage. In verse 9 he makes it plain that prayer is a priority: “from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you”. Later in 1 Thessalonians 5:17, Paul famously charges the Thessalonian church by telling them to pray without ceasing! The Saints softball season is a long season and there are challenges in each year, day, and even game. There are tough conversations with inmates, staff, and even teammates. Please pray faithfully for us over the course of the summer.
Pray that Our Team is Faithful to His Word and Blessed by His Word
Also, in verse 9 he asks God to intercede and fill the Colossian church with spiritual wisdom and understanding. One of my new favorite passages in Scripture is 2 Timothy 3:16-17.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 (ESV)
“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
2 Timothy reminds us that all Scripture comes from God and that is how we are to be equipped and complete for every good work. When verse 9 says that we need to be filled with wisdom and understanding, we should turn to His Word. I am reading through the Bible again this year and am currently in the tough part of the Bible. You know the place. The 2nd half of Exodus through Deuteronomy. This is a rough patch of God’s Word, but this year I have been blessed while reading through it. While there are several chapters of how to build a temple, how to dress if you are a priest, and how to properly splatter a dead ram on an altar, it is full of information that proves how seriously God takes worship. We see throughout the writing of the law, that God takes sin seriously and that there must be punishment for sin. We get lots of historical information about the early Israelites in the first part of the Bible but we also see the character of God there as well! There have been parts of my life where I have read through this part of God’s Word begrudgingly and was bored with it. These last few weeks have been a blessing as I have had the opportunity to read through His Word yet again! Pray that we are faithfully hearing from God from His Word!
Pray for Our Team to be Christlike
In verse 10 Paul reminds the Colossian church that he prays for them to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord that is fully pleasing to Him and to bear fruit. Our team is full of men who love the Lord but our team is also full of men who are bombarded daily with opportunities to follow our own desires instead of His. There are temptations to view things we shouldn’t, there are temptations to have a poor testimony at our jobs, there are temptations to react in anger to our families when things don’t go our way. We did a team devotion a while back on 1 John. There are at least two things that we can take away from 1 John.
We all sin and mess up, but God is faithful to forgive us (1 John 1:9)
We can’t claim to be believers and continue to walk in unrepentant sin. (1 John 1:6, 1:8, 1:10)
We are going to mess up and mess up royally not just because we are guys but because we have a sin nature. The entire book of 1 John is a reminder to me to “knock off” whatever sin struggle I may be going through and repent, take God’s side of my sin issue, and be thankful for his faithful forgiveness. Please pray that our team is Christlike during our Saturday visits. Demonstrating a genuine changed life in front of inmates will give hope to a man who has been told that he can never change. Please pray that our team is also Christlike at work, at home, and wherever we may be.
Pray for Strength, Endurance, Patience, Joy
What we do is a lot of fun. One of my best friends in the ministry will often say, “I can’t believe I get to do this!” Not only do we get to play softball with some of our best pals, but we get to speak to a very attentive audience (you thought that I was going to say captive audience didn’t you?) While all of that is fun, there are moments when we feel the effects of occasional burnout. Once again, I’m ashamed to say it, but there are times that I don’t feel like getting up at 3:30 am and getting on the bus. There are Saturdays where it is tough to choose between spending time at a Saints visit or at one of my kid’s activities. I have spent a good deal of my life madly in love with the game of softball but I’ve just turned 40 and am finding that the new normal is having a bad back and a bad left knee that make this game a lot harder than it used to be! Please pray that your Saints team finds strength, endurance, patience, and joy. There are times that a day doesn’t go quite as we planned it. During the days when things don’t go well on the field, behind the microphone, at home, or even on the bus, please pray that we would run to and cling to James 1:2 and that we would count it all joy when things don’t go well! Pray that we are reminded of what a joy it is to see men confess Jesus as their Savior. Pray that we praise Him and that we grow from our days spent in sharing the Gospel in prison and with each other during our travels.
Pray for Thankfulness
In verse 12, Paul informs the Colossian church that he is praying for them to be thankful to God. There is nothing we will do on the field this year that isn’t ultimately from God. When we see an inmate make a profession of faith in Christ, we know in John 6:44 that God was ultimately the one responsible for that profession. Verse 12 reminds us that God qualified us. We have a sin nature and have sinned which disqualified us from having a relationship with Him! It is only by the death and resurrection of His Son that we are saved. There is nothing an inmate or we could have done to save ourselves! Pray that we maintain a spirit of thankfulness and a spirit of dependence on Him.
Pray for the 2019 Saints!
Note, that Paul never says in this passage that we should pray so things would “work out better”. That is always a temptation of mine. If I just pray harder, things will start working out. I don’t think it works like that. Paul prays that the Colossians would continue to grow closer to God. When you pray for the team this season, things like God opening hearts on the field are desperately important, but pray that God works in the hearts of our men and that we are faithful in sharing the Gospel with the men we see this summer!
