Week 15: Day 1

Intro: Hello and welcome to Orbit, a short reflection to help you put God at the centre of your life, from the team behind Satellites - I'm Sam Donaghey. I live just outside Glasgow and I’m the youth work coordinator at Bishopbriggs Community Church.

Throughout this week we’re going to take some time to let the Holy Spirit speak to us through the Bible, take some time pray about and reflect upon what we have heard, and then put it into practice.

Bible: Today, our reading comes from Colossians 1:9-14, but before we read it, let me give you the context from the first 8 verses before. Paul is writing to the church in a city called Colosse; he is encouraging them about the way they have grown in their in faith in Jesus, and the way that hope and faith guide their lives:

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, 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, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, 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. 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.

Thoughts: Let me ask you this: have you watched or read Harry Potter? Now, controversial opinion moment: not a big fan; I think that genre has been done better by many others. But that’s not the point! Let’s steer away from the tangent! In the first book, Harry’s cousin – Dudley Dursley – complains about the lack of presents. Now there isn’t a lack at all – he has received well in excess of 30 gifts – but he’s a spoilt wee beggar and keeps count; this year’s count is down on the year before.

It's petty, brat-ish, entitled behaviour of wanting more – like Dudley – that can make me pause and think: should I be asking God for more of what He’s given me or done in my life? Or am I being spoilt? Am I being entitled? Am I just using God as a great big Divine vending machine that I put my pound coin worth of prayers into and I get what I want? I get hung up on thinking like this, and sometimes retreat and don’t contend for more of what I think He wants in my life. I believe the lie that we should just be thankful for what we’ve got, and not to ask God for more cause if he wanted to give us more, he would have.

But that’s surely not right. Surely the issue isn’t asking for more – but the heart of the person who is asking. And surely, God is a God of abundance and giving of Himself and what He has in an over-the-top fashion – cause that’s all I see in the bible.

Paul, well, Paul in this passage is not asking for half measures, nor does he think God just wants us to be thankful for our lot... Paul’s asking for more of God’s wisdom, strength, endurance, and Spirit is based on these two things:

Firstly: The glory of God

Paul’s asking for God to do all those things in verses 1:10-12 is based upon that phrase he uses in verse 10: living a life worthy of God. He wants the best that God can offer for his friends in Colosse because he knows that this is displays the greatness, the beauty, the glory of God. And Paul is convinced by this point, that a life that is lived that is wroth being attached the name of God, will always result in God’s heavenly reality breaking out in the world around, and Him, God, receiving the reward that He is due: sons and daughters who are captured by His love, and purpose, to go after more of His reality in their lives and the world around them. That’s Paul. That’s why He asks.

Secondly, the wholehearted willingness of God to lavishly pour out his riches.

And his confidence is rooted in his, and our, identity as sons and daughters. Paul speaks of inheritance. God, with exuberant joy, pours over you everything that He has and is. God, with exuberant joy, will not give you rock when you ask for a loaf of bread. God, with exuberant joy, will fill your life and body, and mind, and soul and spirit. God wants to give you all that is in mentioned in this passage more than you could possibly want it.

You are no Dudley Dursley; no, you are a child of God, joined with King Jesus, who gives you everything that He is, because he loves you, because He will not let His name be put to shame, and because He desires all things to be reconciled to Himself for their good and His glory.

Prayer: Let’s pray: God, I thank you that you give lavishly, that there is more in you for us, that there is more of your lightness for us to come into. I ask that you pour that out, that you would break the lie that says we should just accept things as they are. God give us the wisdom to walk in the ‘more’ that you have for us. Amen,

Reflection: Let’s take a few moments to reflect upon what we’ve heard in the passage or something that I have shared.

Action: Now, finally, today’s challenge. Take this prayer from Paul and pray it over yourself. Insert your name into the prayer. Maybe get specific about how you would like to see some of things listed play out in your life. Then, once you’ve done that – pray for a friend of yours, a fellow Christian. Call them up. Or do it in person if you’re with them. And pray this over them and wait and see God’s patient transformation in yours and their life, for his glory, the blessing of others, and your good.

Outro: That’s it for today. Thank you for listening to Orbit and I pray that you have a smashing day – whatever it may look like.