January 17, 2021

Colossians 4:12

12 Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured.

Matthew 6:5-14

5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

9 “This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,

10 your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

11 Give us today our daily bread.

12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Colossians 4:12
12 Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured.

I’m sure most of us have read or heard about this little verse at some point or another. For the most part we view it as a commendation about Epaphras’ prayer life. I don’t disagree with that, but the more I think about the phrase “wrestling in prayer” the more I feel like there may be a secondary meaning.

I want to suggest that part of Epaphras’ contention or struggle in prayer involved wrestling with some of the same issues that we must all wrestle with when it comes to the spiritual discipline of prayer. One by one, I want us to contend with principles of prayer that we may take for granted, or don’t truly understand, or in some cases have been taught incorrectly. Principles that must be dealt with if we are to remain faithful and be victorious in prayer

In order to do that, I want to re-examine the teaching that Jesus gave his disciples when they asked him to teach them to pray.

KEY TEXT: Matthew 6:5-14

• Prayer is first and foremost about relationship
• Prayer is believing in and understanding who God is
• Prayer is not a formula
• Prayer is not telling God what to do
• Prayer is not bribing or manipulating God
• Prayer is not bringing God into conformity with our will but bringing our will into conformity with God’s