Today Our Daily Bread Col 1 :9-29 & 2 :6-10

Colossians 1: 9-29
So we have continued praying for you ever since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you a complete understanding of what he wants to do in your lives, and we ask him to make you wise with spiritual wisdom.
10 Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and you will continually do good, kind things for others. All the while, you will learn to know God better and better.
11 We also pray that you will be strengthened with his glorious power so that you will have all the patience and endurance you need. May you be filled with joy, 12 always thanking the Father, who has enabled you to share the inheritance that belongs to God's holy people, who live in the light. 13 For he has rescued us from the one who rules in the kingdom of darkness, and he has brought us into the Kingdom of his dear Son. 14 God has purchased our freedom with his blood F3 and has forgiven all our sins.15 Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before God made anything at all and is supreme over all creation. F4 16 Christ is the one through whom God created everything in heaven and earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can't see – kings, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities. Everything has been created through him and for him.17 He existed before everything else began, and he holds all creation together.
18 Christ is the head of the church, which is his body. He is the first of all who will rise from the dead, F5 so he is first in everything. 19 For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, 20 and by him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of his blood on the cross. 21 This includes you who were once so far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions, 22 yet now he has brought you back as his friends. He has done this through his death on the cross in his own human body. As a result, he has brought you into the very presence of God, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.
23 But you must continue to believe this truth and stand in it firmly. Don't drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News. The Good News has been preached all over the world, and I, Paul, have been appointed by God to proclaim it.24 I am glad when I suffer for you in my body, for I am completing what remains of Christ's sufferings for his body, the church. 25 God has given me the responsibility of serving his church by proclaiming his message in all its fullness to you Gentiles. 26 This message was kept secret for centuries and generations past, but now it has been revealed to his own holy people. 27 For it has pleased God to tell his people that the riches and glory of Christ are for you Gentiles, too. For this is the secret: Christ lives in you, and this is your assurance that you will share in his glory.
28 So everywhere we go, we tell everyone about Christ. We warn them and teach them with all the wisdom God has given us, for we want to present them to God, perfect F6 in their relationship to Christ. 29 I work very hard at this, as I depend on Christ's mighty power that works within me.

Colossians 2: 6-10
2:6 And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to live in obedience to him. 7 Let your roots grow down into him and draw up nourishment from him, so you will grow in faith, strong and vigorous in the truth you were taught. Let your lives overflow with thanksgiving for all he has done.8 Don't let anyone lead you astray with empty philosophy and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the evil powers of this world, F7 and not from Christ. 9 For in Christ the fullness of God lives in a human body, F8 10 and you are complete through your union with Christ. He is the Lord over every ruler and authority in the universe.
FOOTNOTES:F3: Some manuscripts do not include with his blood. F4: Greek He is the firstborn of all creation. F5: Greek He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead. F6: Or mature. F7: Or from the basic principles of this world; also in 2:20. F8: Greek in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
Holy Bible, New Living Translation,copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.,Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved
~ Lena's Comments ~
Continued sincere prayer that originates from the motivation of the true love of God inside of us, is a real sign of love and genuine concern. If I take time to pray for you, I care about you enough to give my time for you. If I give my time for you I may also give my time to you in relationship. It is an expression of love. Ever heard,,,"I wouldn’t give them the time of day?" Think about it. What is truly important here on earth? Living. Then taking that a step further- Living with and for God, fulfilling the Why of Why we are Living here. This prayer covers all of that and is an example of the true cry of a heart that holds genuine concern for people to know and fulfill their purposes in Christ. The good and kind things are not really "things" in general, "They" are giving of the spiritual "things" that will help others grow in Christ. How many times in life are we easily and readily willing to give things away, but we with hold the gospel message and the words and life force it wold take to help another come to the saving KNOWLEDGE of Christ (meaning making Christ their Lord from now on)? Not just showing someone the Savior. When we get a true revelation of what He has done for us and the price that was paid for this message and how we live in a country where we can boldly proclaim and live it on a day to day basis; we will rise up and take back the time that has been stolen from the world by holding us back. Through Him and FOR Him, that’s us ! It’s like truth was told you and even solidified in you, BUT you have to keep truth or it will be stolen from you, Truth is a relationship that must be maintained. ALL of us have this same responsibility as Paul had with the gospel, to live and believe it and proclaim it by the proof of our lives and the boldness of our speech. Think of the word Response- ABILITY, My ability to respond – I can DO ALL things through Christ who strengthens me. If sin has left me with an in ability to respond to God call, he made provision- repent and be forgiven. If mindsets have kept me, then change them by the word. If heartbreak and bondage has, then be free from the bondage. The Cross and the suffering of Christ for me paid for all of that and restored the ability for me to respond! God commands response. If I do not respond even to be healed, so that I can respond, there will be an awful price for me to pay later on. See we cannot pay that price and God knows it and He does not want us to pay it, but satan does, because he’s gonna pay it and wants us to along with us. We also need a revelation of the price this is and how serious the cost of rebellion will be.