“Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere. And pray for me, too. Ask God to give me the right words so I can boldly explain God’s mysterious plan that the Good News is for Jews and Gentiles alike. I am in chains now, still preaching this message as God’s ambassador. So pray that I will keep on speaking boldly for him, as I should. To bring you up to date, Tychicus will give you a full report about what I am doing and how I am getting along. He is a beloved brother and faithful helper in the Lord’s work. I have sent him to you for this very purpose—to let you know how we are doing and to encourage you. Peace be with you, dear brothers and sisters, and may God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you love with faithfulness. May God’s grace be eternally upon all who love our Lord Jesus Christ.”
How’s your prayer life been lately? Do you feel alert, strategic, persistent, and missional? Or have you felt sluggish, disconnected, or apathetic? Perhaps you are somewhere in between. Your prayer life can be a good gauge of your overall spiritual progress. If you don’t feel completely dependent on prayer to help you accomplish your mission, you might not have a very supernatural mission you are setting out to accomplish. Supernatural acts are by definition things we cannot do naturally. Thus, prayer is the way in which we operate in spiritual authority and use the gifts of the Holy Spirit for his purposes.
Paul was given a supernatural mission: to spread the Gospel to the whole known world. And perhaps just to demonstrate his abilities, God had Paul thrown in jail half the time. Seems hard to spread a message around the globe when you are locked in a cell and have pretty limited communication options. Perhaps we underestimate the power of writing a letter, but God found it useful to accomplish his purposes. God cannot be limited by earthly limitations.
Here’s your freedom for today: God’s faithful love and grace are with you today. Paul ends his letter with an encouraging benediction, reminding his readers that God’s faithful love and grace are anchors in the midst of hardship. Paul is writing while chained in a cell, yet his real tether is to the love and grace of Jesus. What is spiritually true is often quite different than what appears to be true in an earthly circumstance. Paul was more free in that jail cell than many of us will experience in our everyday lives. In what ways do you need freedom, love, and grace today? Ask God to bless you with these gifts so that you may experience his peace in the midst of any circumstance.