Do you remember the days of Jr. High English when you had to diagram sentences? Ok, does that show you how old I am?
Well, if you remember that then this next sentence will require that you get a legal pad or larger, turn it sideways and begin diagramming.
The Apostle Paul was writing to the “saints” in Colossae and to us “saints” who live in the world today. Don’t get hung up on the word saints. In the Bible a saint was anyone who had found new life in Christ. So…you are a saint!
“This is what we pray: that God will make you completely sure of what he wants by giving you all the wisdom and spiritual understanding you need; that this will help you live in a way that brings honor to the Lord and pleases him in every way; that your life will produce good works of every kind and that you will grow in your knowledge of God; that God will strengthen you with his own great power, so that you will be patient and not give up when troubles come. (end of the 1st sentence)
Then you will be happy and give thanks to the Father. He has made you able to have what he has promised to give all his holy people, who live in the light. God made us free from the power of darkness. And he brought us into the kingdom of his dear Son. The Son paid the price to make us free. In him we have forgiveness of our sins.” Colossians 1:9-14
Paul prayed that God would make us sure, not just sure, completely sure of what God wants by giving us wisdom and understanding, all the wisdom and spiritual understanding that we need. This wisdom and understanding will help us live a life that honors and pleases the Lord in EVERY way.
This wisdom and understanding will cause our lives to produce GOOD works of every kind. This wisdom, understanding and good works will cause us to grow in our knowledge of God.
Then Paul prayed that God will strengthen us with power, but not just power, His great power so that we will be patient (have endurance) and not give up when trouble comes.
Now that we have endured and not given up we will give thanks to our Father because He has made us free from the power of darkness (this was His promise to us) and brought us into His Son’s kingdom where we have freedom and the forgiveness of sins.
WOW!!!
Thank you Mrs. Morgan for teaching me to dig through subjects, predicates, nouns, verbs, direct objects, indirect objects, adjectives, adverbs and prepositional phrases. In doing this, I learned how to study out the word of God and to know that every word has meaning and purpose.
God doesn’t waste words – In the beginning He said, “Light be” and light was. So when you find a couple of verses filled with so many words – take time to find the meaning packed in each one. It’s there you will find the wonderful message of God’s love, His wisdom, understanding and strength!
I’m one of those people who actually found that diagramming sentences helped me to understand correct grammar. It really helped me to understand other languages, too. Great writing Kristi!
Grammar was one of my favorite classes. It sure has come in handy throughout my life. Eliminates a lot of misunderstanding.