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Read: Colossians 1:9-14
Listen: Colossians 1

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. Colossians 1:12

Paul prays for the Colossians to give joyful thanks, rooted in what God has done for them through Jesus. Paul understands the depth of this thanksgiving. He had previously hunted down Jesus’s followers, dragging them off to prison, even consenting to their deaths (Acts 8:3). Then Jesus met him on a road outside Damascus, and everything changed (Acts 9:3–20). Paul has never gotten over what Jesus did for him. He knows he’s done nothing to deserve Jesus’s rescue. God alone has qualified him, pulling him from darkness into light, giving him an inheritance he has no right to claim. That undeserved grace has fueled a lifetime of joyful thanks. He prays the same for the Colossians.

It can be easy for us to forget the depth of Jesus’s rescue. Yet, a worthy life that pleases God includes giving thanks for our salvation. The word “qualified” is past tense. This is already done. We did not make ourselves worthy. Nothing we do today makes us more qualified. God qualified us through Jesus—forgiving us, making us holy, rescuing us from the dominion of darkness, and bringing us into the kingdom of his Son (Colossians 1:13–14). We simply receive what he has done in faith and respond with gratitude. Gratitude is not a feeling we work up. It grows naturally when we remember we have been rescued and what God has given us.

PRAYER DAY #46:  Think of someone who needs to remember what Jesus has done for them. Pray for them: “Father, fill _________ with joyful, gospel gratitude because you have qualified them through Jesus.”

 

If you haven’t shared a story yet about how you have grown in prayer throughout this 50 Days of Prayer challenge, we would love to hear from you! Please share a sentence or two with us HERE.