I Thank God For You

Thank God For You

Reading: Colossians 1-4 We always pray for you, and we give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Colossians 1:3 NLT) Today the thing that caught my attention first was part of Paul’s greeting to the Christ-followers in Colosse: “We always pray for you, and we give thanks to God!” Then I thought about the readings for the past few days as Paul wrote to his friends in…:
Philippi: Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God. (Philippians 1:3 NLT)
Ephesus: I have not stopped thanking God for you… (Ephesians 1:16 NLT)
Corinth: I always thank my God for you… (1 Corinthians 1:4 NLT)
Rome: …I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you… (Romans 1:8 NLT) Paul loved these people deeply—the ones he knew well and the ones he had never met face-to-face. God has given Jean and me the privilege of loving Christ-followers around the world. This morning I thought of friends in Jamaica, Hong Kong, Japan, UK, Ghana, Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, Malawi, Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Sudan, New Zealand, Australia, Mexico, Costa Rica, and Canada, and I thanked God for them all. I thanked God for each one who came to mind. I remembered times when we were serving Jesus together. I remembered our love and friendship for each other. I thought about how glad I feel when I hear news from friends in faraway places. Then, I thought about my friends and fellow Christ-followers here in Bend and across the USA, and how much they mean to me. I thought about friends in Christ I’ve never met face-to-face who are reading GraceNotes across the USA and around the world. I’m wealthy beyond measure in the relationships God has given me!

Friends, value your relationships and invest yourself in them. Your relationships are your real, true, lasting wealth! You can take that with you! Prayer: Father, Thank you for my family and my friends around the world. Thank you for their friendship, their faith, their service, their sacrifice, and their influence. Bless them with all spiritual and all natural blessings. I pray Colossians 1:9-13 for them all! Amen.

9 So we have continued praying for you ever since we first heard about you.We ask God to give you a complete understanding of what he wants to do in your lives, and we ask him to make you wise with spiritual wisdom. 10 Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and you will continually do good, kind things for others. All the while, you will learn to know God better and better. 11 We also pray that you will be strengthened with his glorious power so that you will have all the patience and endurance you need. May you be filled with joy, 12 always thanking the Father, who has enabled you to share the inheritance that belongs to God’s holy people, who live in the light. 13 For he has rescued us from the one who rules in the kingdom of darkness, and he has brought us into the Kingdom of his dear Son. (Colossians 1:9-13 NLT)

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