We read this prayer at elders meeting this morning and discussed Carson’s explanation of it.
For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; 10 that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing [Him], being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; 12 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. 13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed [us] into the kingdom of the Son of His love, 14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
Colossians 1:9-14
Here are some observation questions to get at the meaning.
The four questions below are answered in verses 9, 10, 11, 12, 13-14 respectively.
What does he pray that they will be filled with? (9)
He wants them filled with this so that – what? (10)
Why does he want them to be strengthened? (11)
This strength and longsuffering causes the giving of what? To Whom? (12)
How does all of the above relate to Who Christ is? (13-14)