Wow. God wanted me to study Colossians chapter one this week. I am newly divorced (as in six days ago) and my brain has been swirling with half-truths and lies that I believe Satan has been bombarding me with for quite a while now. I am glad to be in a place where I feel more able to focus on truth. That is exactly what Colossians chapter one does. This chapter is delightfully dripping with the truth of who God is. As I studied this chapter and wrote out what I could learn about God, I was so thankful and blessed for the opportunity. I believe that if you read and reread the chapter, you will be so blessed by it too.
Paul is writing this letter from prison to the church in Colossae. The church had begun to leave behind important truths of Christianity and embrace beliefs of different religions. They had created a hodge-podge religion and had forgotten the deity of Christ. It certainly began to affect how they lived and the choices they made. The more lies they consumed….the more lies they believed. I have been there. It seems, at times lately, that I even question what is true about me. I wonder if everything about me is wrong.
What was exceptionally dangerous in Colossae, is that they were making an idol out of knowledge and believing themselves to be enlightened, even in the middle of confusion. How did Paul address this? After giving thanks for them and praying for wisdom and strength for his brothers and sisters in Christ, he simply spoke the truth about God. Simply speaking about who God is, is so powerful. The list of things to address were many and Paul simply spoke the gospel truth to each one. This points out to me the awesomeness and power of God. Even in His word, there is power, because He made it so.
I sat down to create a list of all the things we could learn about God from this text. The list is so vast on the many aspects of God it covers. I wrote at least three pages. First, I just made a list of what it said. I got fired up. I decided to then write the list saying, “God you are… “, and wrote more out. Recently I have struggled with wondering if I really know myself very well. It seems that at times, my mind has become so unclear, and I wonder if anything I think is right. I wrote and spoke out loud, “God you are my...” for everything I had written. I promise you will not regret doing the same thing. Here are a handful of powerful truths we find about God in this chapter.
God is generous
“[...] We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, So that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God [...]”
(Colossians 1:9-10)
God gives hope that produces faith and love. He gives wisdom and understanding and all we have to do is ask and pray like Paul does for the church of Colossae. By receiving that wisdom and acting on it we have the ability to bear good fruit that is pleasing to God.
God Rescues
He rescued us from the dominion of darkness by sending His beloved son, Jesus to us. He extends his hand in invitation, but doesn’t stop there. He tracks us down and prepares a place for us:
“For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
(Colossians 1:13)
To write this out makes me want to keep going on all the things God is and does. So I will:
Empowers
Qualifies
Supreme
Redeems
The Creator
As I wrote and spoke these things, I realized the significance of what was happening. Simply speaking about who God is aloud can be considered worship. It is acknowledging His hand in everything. Just by describing Him, we bring power and life to a situation. That is the power of God. By combatting the deception with remembering who God is, we are reminded of His power and awesomeness. When we remember Christ is in us and has made a way for us to sit in His awesomeness, we learn who we are because of Him. He is everything. The beginning and the end. He is the way, the truth, and the light.
Joanna is a contributing writer for Shaken and Stirred. She loves Jesus and hopes she never stops learning more about Him. She is a Life Coach working alongside women and adolescence, as well as a mom to amazing 11&13 year old young men. She loves hiking and yoga when she gets the chance to do it. She often enjoys writing, creating, coffee with a friend or book, and laughing while hanging out with her boys.
Photo by Sixteen Miles Out on Unsplash