Day 17

As I prayed for my son last night, and again this morning, I found myself unintentionally quoting scripture. I have begun the practice of writing down my prayers for my children, and my wife. Sometimes before I pray for them, sometimes after: “Help him to overcome the biases that he has facilitated in and through his behavior at school, and let his renewed commitment to holiness, and honoring of You, be the standard by which he becomes accountable – and let him live worthy of that calling.” I want my son to “know” God, and to be worthy of the calling God has on his life.
Obviously, my prayer is not a direct quote of scripture, but as I look at Paul’s prayer for the church at Colossae, I am directed to a theme of Paul’s desire for his Christian beloved to “epi-know” God. In the Zondervan Greek-interlinear, the word “epignosei” is translated “FULL – knowledge,” as opposed to the more common form of “to know” which is the root form “gnosko.” The distinction is in the “epi” form of the word. To know God from the “pinnacle” or “center” of knowledge. We read in our Bibles from the prison epistles Paul wrote to the churches in Ephesus, Philippi, Colossae, and to Philemon, that he had the same concern for them, that we have for our own beloved.
“I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, would give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge (epi-gnosei – full knowledge) of Him.” (Ephesians 1:17)
“I pray that your participation in the faith may become effective through knowing (epi-gnosei – a full knowing of) every good thing that is in us for the glory of Christ.” (Philemon 1:6)
“For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven’t stopped praying for you. We are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge (epi-gnosei – full knowledge) of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge (epi-gnosei – full knowledge) of God.” (Colossians 1:9-10)
“And I pray this: that your love will keep on growing in knowledge (epi-gnosei – full knowledge) and every kind of discernment,” (Philippians 1:9)
The idea of “knowing” God would be preposterous, except that He make Himself known to us. But that is the beginning of our proper perspective of Christian life. In Colossians 1:9-10, we see that Paul expects the consequence (or result) of this “epi-knowledge” would be that they (we) would be able to walk in a manner worthy of the LORD. – “that you may walk worthy of the LORD.” In other words, it is the “knowing” (v.9) that leads to the “doing” (v.10-12)
As we focus on the idea of serving God and others, let us not lose sight of the proper order of things. We want to please the LORD, but we cannot focus only on the “doing.” Paul’s prayers in these passages, as ours too may well be, were for those who already knew the LORD. I will focus deliberately on the theme of constant prayer focused on knowing God first. Fully knowing God – for myself, and others who are called to serve.