Jesus is Greater Series: Prayer That Forms the Soul (Colossians 1:9-14)
- Phillip Bates
- Feb 12
- 3 min read
Sermon Guide for February 15, 2026
How to Use This Guide:
These guides are designed to help you engage more deeply with my weekly sermon. Use this guide to prepare your heart to receive God's Word before worship, or to reflect on God's Word the week following worship.
Parents, use the information in this guide (especially in the "Family Practice" section) to have meaningful conversations with your kids that nurture their faith and help them grow in God’s love.
Big Idea
In Colossians 1:9–14, the Apostle Paul pulls back the curtain and reveals what he regularly prayed for the Colossians. If your prayer life feels thin or repetitive, this passage offers some guidance. Spiritually mature prayer does not simply ask God to change what is happening around us—it asks him to change what is happening within us.
What Spiritually Mature Prayer Asks For
Greater Spiritual Intelligence
"...be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.” (v. 9)
Spiritual intelligence means:
Seeing life from God’s perspective
Interpreting suffering through God’s purposes
Letting God’s will govern your reactions to daily decisions and circumstances
This Week:
Before making decisions, ask: “What response would reflect God’s character here?”
When conflict arises, pause and pray before speaking.
Journal one moment each day where you reacted with spiritual maturity—or wish you had.
Daily Prayer:
“God, fill me with your knowledge and wisdom so that your will becomes my reflex every day.”
A Worthy Walk
“ …so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God…” (v. 10)
What is a "worthy walk?"
“Worthy” does not mean earning your place. It means fitting, or consistent. Paul is saying, "Live in alignment with who God has made you in Christ."
Signs of a Worthy Walk:
Bearing fruit in good works
Growing in knowledge
Living in a way that pleases him
This Week:
Identify one area where your behavior doesn’t reflect your identity in Christ.
Ask: “Does this response fit someone who belongs to Jesus?”
Daily Prayer:
“Lord, You have made me new. Help me live like it.”
Supernatural Strength
“…being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, so that you may have great endurance and patience…” (v. 11)
God’s power is not primarily meant to spare us from trials, but to steady us through them. Therefore, mature prayer asks for:
Endurance
Patience
Joy in hardship
The clearest evidence of God’s power is often not that the storm stopped—but that you remained faithful in the middle of it.
Reflect:
Where do I need strength to endure right now?
What would faithfulness look like in this season?
Daily Prayer:
“Strengthen me according to Your glorious might.”
A Heart of Gratitude
“…joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light. He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son he loves. In him we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” (vv. 12-14)
What generates gratitude? Remembering where we used to be, and everything God has done for us.
You were:
In darkness
Under condemnation
Spiritually poor
You are now:
In the light
Forgiven
Given an inheritance
Transferred into Christ’s kingdom
When gratitude dries up, it’s often a memory problem.
This Week:
Write down 3 ways God has rescued you.
Reflect on one “before Christ” pattern that no longer defines you.
Daily Prayer:
“I pray I remember just how lost I was, and how much you, God, have done for me, so that I’ll grow in gratitude.”
Personal Reflection Questions
Where is my prayer life most on autopilot?
Do my prayers focus more on circumstance or transformation?
What area of my life is misaligned with my identity in Christ?
Where do I need endurance instead of escape?
What have I forgotten about what God has done for me?
Family Practice
Ask around the dinner table:
What does it mean to “live like who God made us to be”?
What is one difficult situation where we need to ask God for endurance?
What is one way God has rescued our family?
Pray the four movements of Colossians 1:9-14 together.
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