Colossians 1:11 Insuctive Bible Study: Perseverance 2/4

Colossians 1:11 says, "Strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy."

I think it's awesome that this verse says that we should be strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power.  Well, for one it says all might and then we realize that Paul is talking about Christ's power in us. That is a LOT of power. Also, it's according to HIS glorious power. This means that we don't have to work in our own strength at all but in God's power. How insane is that?

God told Joshua to be strong 3 times when Moses died and He was going to be leading the Israelites(Josh 1:6-9). God repeated it 3 times probably because He knew that Joshua would be afraid that he wouldn’t have the strength to lead the Israelites. God wasn't commanding him to be strong in his own power but I think He was reminding Joshua to go to Him for strength. He was reminding him that he wouldn't be able to be strong on his own.

Ok so, now for the second half of the verse. To put this verse in context, Paul is talking to the new Christians at the Colossian church. This verse is in the middle of a list of things that he is praying that they be filled with. So he prays for strength, and then endurance and patience and joy. It seems to me that he is praying for endurance, patience and joy as a package deal. Now, let's look at why this might be.

I think that to have endurance you need patience and both of these should come with joy even when joy is the last thing on your mind. There are times when it is really hard to endure and persevere through trials. That's one of the reasons that as a Christian we need to most definitely have God's might and power in us and not be trying to work with our own strength. We can sure try to persevere with our own strength, but I can guarantee that we will get tired very quickly.

Trials can seem like they last forever sometimes and we feel like we have persevered but we just want the trial to be over already. That's where the patience comes in. We can't see the big picture. We don't know why we are going through this. But as followers of Christ we have a promise that all things will work out for our good(Romans 8:28). We just have to endure it with patience and trust in His timing, purpose and plan.

Now for the joy. This seems random to me but I think that joy is just a part of following Christ. Rejoice in the Lord always(Phil.4:4)! There is no justification that comes after saying only when you feel like it. It says ALWAYS! Even when we feel like we are at the end of our rope. Even when we have to be patient and we just want to give up. God created me and gave me a purpose. No matter what I am going through, that alone should be a reason to rejoice always.

Application:

I know that in these next 9 months, I will face trials, and temptation and I will need patience and there will be so many times where I will not want to be joyful anymore. Today, I am going to pray that God prepares my heart and gives me His strength to persevere with patience and rejoice always.