Colossians 4:12-13 Epaphras, who is one
of your number, a bondslave of Jesus Christ, sends you his greeting,
always laboring earnestly for you in prayers, that you may stand perfect
and fully assured in all the will of God. For I bear him witness, that he has a
deep concern for you, and them that are in Laodicea, and them in Hierapolis.
Epraphras is not a name you hear much of. Under Paul’s direction, he
evangelized the cities of the Lycus Valley in Phrgias and founded the churches
of Colossae, Hierapolis and Laoicea. He was obviously a dear saint in the Lord.
Paul refers to him as fellow bondslave
and fellow prisoner. He may have suffered
imprisonment with Paul at one time. I looked up ‘bondslave’ in the New
Testament Dictionary because it was underlined in my Hebrew-Greek Bible and in
this context it means followers and
ministers of Christ. But the thing that really impresses me about this
saint is what Paul wrote about him– he always labored earnestly in prayer! How
beautiful to know one so connected to the followers and ministers of Christ
would be laboring so earnestly in prayer for you!
He was a man with whom Paul must have been accustomed to praying, and
clearly the apostle knew of his zeal from personal experience. But notice what
Epaphras prayed for – that you may stand
perfect and complete in all the will of God. That's my prayer for each one
of us.
The Intercessory work of the saint through prayer is the work behind the
scenes, the silent ministry that most of the world knows little of, yet more powerful
than any weapon on earth unleashing power from above that makes demons tremble.
I also looked up ‘laboring earnestly’ and it is defined as to exert oneself, to strive earnestly. Prayer is not a passive past
time. It takes action on our part to exert
oneself and strive earnestly. I
have to admit, I cannot say all my prayers of intercession could be described
as prayers of earnest labor. So often, we dash off a quick little ‘post-it note’
of a prayer for someone or something and feel we’ve done our part. We too
quickly say, “I’ll pray for you” and, though we probably mean it at the time,
we shuffle it into the pile of other “I’ll pray for you(s)” and it gets covered
under something of an umbrella prayer over the pile. I felt a deep ache in my
heart when I heard a popular and mainstream ministry put all the prayer request
they received in large baskets and prayed over the baskets. I’m sure the vast
amount of requests made that seem logical and practical but it certainly doesn’t
seem like laboring earnestly in prayer for those entrusting their needs to
them. Just my opinion.
In this day and age, with the winds of spiritual warfare swirling all around
– when faith will be tested to the extreme – my prayer is that you and I will
stand perfect and complete in the will of God and learn what it really means to
labor earnestly in prayer. With so many of us under severe attack, never
neglect the power of prayer – for this ministry counts so much more than you
may realize, not only here on earth– but also, where it really
counts…in heaven.
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