Stumbling around in His Mercy and Grace

For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. 10 And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. Colossians 1:9-12

Living, pleasing, bearing, growing, being strengthened. Powerful and attainable goals in our relationships with Jesus, however it seems that the most difficult challenge is truly living for the Lord. Assuming that the Apostle Paul was intentional in his writings implying a "process" for a Christ-like life you can't help but wonder if we do the first element of committing our lives to "living" for Jesus the rest of these will come upon us and transform us naturally and spiritually. If we live for Jesus, He will be pleased by our desire to give our all for Him. If we give our all for Him, we naturally "bear fruit" for the Him resulting in good works by serving others (instead of ourselves). By "bearing fruit" and serving others we gain more knowledge of God's loving and compassionate nature. Once we have gone through this process we will know a life of JOY giving thanks to the Father.

In all my 12 years of reading my Bible this is the first time that this verse has "jumped out" at me. It just goes to show that there is always new wisdom to be discovered every day from reading the Word.

Robert