Thanksgiving and Prayer

Paul is a prisoner in Rome while he writes this letter to the faithful brothers in Christ at Colosse. It is very likely that Paul also wrote to Philemon during this time. In Philemon 1:23 Paul mentions Epaphras and refers to him as his fellow prisoner in Jesus Christ, and mentions him again in Colossians 1:7. Paul's prayer is centered on God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul always gives thanks for God's work in the lives of others. Paul lays a goal before his readers; while he uses the triad of faith, love and hope to commend the Colossians, it also serves to set out the objectives of Christian life. Every task that we perform, every calling we hear, every burden we respond to, every act of worship and every opportunity to witness should aim to strengthen our faith, love and hope:  

“We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people— the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel that has come to you. In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world—just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace. You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.” Colossians 1:3-8.

The Apostles were mindful of the Colossians and prayed for them frequently and constantly, just as we should be mindful, lifting up one another in prayer. Paul doesn’t pray that we have a "knowledge" of God’s will, for some knowledge of it we have already. What he asks for is that we might be "filled" with the knowledge of it, which supposes that we do have knowledge, but that our knowledge is not full and complete, but imperfect, and that we might have a larger measure of it, and such a fullness of it as we are able, in our present state. He adds that we be led into all the wisdom of God, the revelation of His will concerning the salvation of His people, and that we have a "spiritual understanding" of the mysteries of grace:  

“For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding.” Colossians 1:9

Paul prays that knowledge be put into practice, for knowledge without practice is useless. He first asks for knowledge and then practice, for we cannot act according to the will of God unless we know it. And when we know it, we should not be content in our knowledge, but put it in practice bearing fruit in every good work. We are like trees planted by the Lord and the good work is the fruit. We give thanks to God for all our knowledge, and the increase of it and all our fruitfulness in good works, for all blessings and increase are from Him. We have abundant reason to give thanks to the Father for our heavenly inheritance, freely given to us since we are not worthy of how great the inheritance is:

“And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his saints in the kingdom of light.” Colossians 1:10-12 

God in His power and grace delivered us from the enemy which is sin, darkness, blindness, ignorance, and unbelief. We are internally called, and brought us powerfully out of this darkness, by introducing light to us, revealing Christ in us, causing the enemy to flee, and the scales of darkness and blindness to fall from our eyes:

“For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” Colossians 1:13-14.