Need
a Fill-up?
Today's
Three-minute Bible Study
Print,
Study and Apply
Title:
Need a Fill-up? -------------------
Date: 2/1/2002
Keywords:
"fill"
"pray"
Welcome
to eXXit, the web site designed to help you stand
strong in the face of sexual temptation.
For the
next several days, we will be studying one of the
Apostle Paul’s great prayers, found in Colossians
1. This prayer, for spiritual growth for his readers,
is tailor-made for men and women who wrestle with
— and sometimes fail in — a chronic
temptation to use pornography. God bless
you!
Passage:
Colossians 1:9-14*
9. For this reason also,
since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to
pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with
the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and
understanding,
10. so that you may walk in a
manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all
respects, bearing fruit in every good work and
increasing in the knowledge of God;
11. strengthened with all power,
according to His glorious might, for the attaining of
all steadfastness and patience; joyously
12. giving thanks to the Father,
who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of
the saints in light.
13. For He delivered us from the
domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom
of His beloved Son
14. in whom we have redemption,
the forgiveness of sins.
Question
1. What is Paul’s
first request (verse 9)?
2. Do you think it is possible
to be filled with the knowledge of God’s
will?
Practical
help
"How do you know
God’s will?" Ask that question to ten Christians
and you may get ten different answers! Put on a
seminar titled, "Knowing God’s Will," and you are
sure to get some takers. Every man and woman wants to
know "God’s will" for his/her life — at
least as far as (1) who to marry, (2) what job to
take, (3) what car to buy, (4) what neighborhood to
live in, and the like.
But are these the kinds of
issues Paul had in mind when he prayed for his
Christian friends? I think not. I think he was talking
about a different aspect of God’s will that is
not mysterious or difficult to find. It is
God’s moral will.
That is why he didn’t
simply pray that they would "know" it, as if gaining
knowledge was the key. They probably already
knew God’s will as well as you and I
do.
Tell the truth. Work hard.
Evangelize. Be pure.
We know all of that. What
we need is to be filled with that knowledge.
When we are filled with that knowledge, then,
at the moment we are tempted to act contrary to that
knowledge, we will be equipped to "stand
strong."
That is applicable to
truth-telling, financial integrity — and Web
habits. You can know for certain that God’s will
for you involves maintaining sexual purity. That
means, among other things, that you do not view Web
porn.
If you find yourself succumbing
to the temptation to view things you know you
shouldn’t, pray Paul’s prayer. pray
that God would fill you with the truth in such a way
that it makes a difference at the moment of
temptation.
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2002 by eXXit
*"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD
BIBLE®, © Copyright The Lockman Foundation
1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977,
1995. Used by permission."
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