The Apostle Paul’s letter to the Colossians was intended to re-direct the new Colossae church toward the deity of Christ and admonish them to live Christ centered lives. In the first chapter of Colossians, Paul describes his prayer for the Colossians.
When I came across this paragraph years ago, the Marine inside me saw this as a great mission statement for life and I decided I would pray this over myself, my family and friends, and my Church as part of my daily prayer routine.
My prayer focused on verses 9-10.
I pray that God fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, ¹⁰ so 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.
Another translation puts it this way: Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord. In either case, what a great way to live a life, honoring and pleasing God, producing all good fruits, and growing as we get to know Him better and better. Not that we endeavor to do this to earn salvation of even garner credit or love, but we strive to format our lives this way because we love God.
I've been praying this way for years, and it dawned on me recently during one of those prayers, that maybe the Lord wants to answer that prayer, in some small way, through me. Maybe there is something I can teach that equips the saints for this kind of Godly living. That thought inspired my vision of what the leadership training would look like.
I took inventory of my life, as a Marine, as a man with my own redemption story in my walk of faith, and as a man who’s made a career as a leadership teacher, mentor, and coach. I came up with the idea of teaching folks what I call a “Christ centered warrior ethos.”
Colossians 1:9-14
⁹ For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, ¹⁰ so 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, ¹¹ being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, ¹² and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. ¹³ For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, ¹⁴ in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
