DEVOTION - Colossians 4:2

Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with thanksgiving. - Colossians 4:2.

A call to devotional, vigilant prayer.  And once again, keep it thankful!

There are two parts to this verse, the devotion and the vigil.  Both have become recognizable rituals in many faith communities in which prayer is central, but we tend to think of devotions as a daily routine while the prayer vigil is typically reserved for an extreme instance, when someone is missing or sick or at death's door.  But why not combine the two?

I will be the first to admit that my set-aside time for devotions is not as daily as it should be, but maybe more vigilance, more awareness of the daily presence of God, is what I need to make it so.

We are encouraged by no less than the Lord's prayer.  In teaching us to pray, Jesus intended our prayer to be daily, at Matthew 6:11: "Give us this day our daily bread."

The early Christians made it routine, too, and with a decidedly thankful spirit.  See Acts 2:42-46: "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers... Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts."

A prayer vigil is still appropriate in a time of trial.  So it was when Jesus, in the hours before he was to die, admonished Peter at Matthew 26:41: "Stay awake and pray."  Yet, in turn, it was Peter who would later call on us to apply vigilance to all our cares, at 1 Peter 5:7-8: "Cast all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.  Discipline yourselves, keep alert... And when you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen and establish you."

Our daily alertness is against the same devil we face in extraordinary times, yet by devoting ourselves to daily prayer we can regularly defeat the devil and grow stronger for it.  Be thankful to God, whose saving grace is part of our daily bread!

---
God, when the job at hand is more than I can handle,
God, when the pressure weighs heavy upon me,
God, when things are out of my hands,
when I am helpless, lost and looking for answers,
God, when I’ve buried my head in the sand,
sulked in my sorrows and wondered aloud
in a roomful of sufferers, selfishly cried “Why me?”
God, when I don’t know the answers,
God, when I think I need to know
as a matter of survival, life and death,
God, the power and the glory
and the answer, God, is yours.

--- Journal archives, 1990

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Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.  Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me.  Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit. - Psalm 51:10-12

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Thank you God for your daily grace.  Thank you for restoring unto me the joy of your salvation, for supporting me with your presence, for strengthening and cleaning my heart and for establishing a new and right spirit within me.

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