A very interesting Bible study that you could do on your own would be to study the prayers of the Apostle Paul. There are many prayers of Paul from Romans to 2 Timothy, and you will find that all his prayers were always for spiritual things. He never prayed that people would become rich, that they would have good houses to live in, or they would advance in their jobs. He never prayed for any of these material things. Paul always prayed for deep, eternal, spiritual things, because he was so gripped in his heart with the truth that everything on this earth is only for a short period.

Suppose you were taking a journey to Delhi, and were going to settle down in Delhi for the next 50 years. Anyone who is praying for you would not spend most of his time praying primarily for the train journey to Delhi; that you would have a comfortable trip, and that you would eat good food, and wear good clothing in the train, and sleep peacefully. He would be praying more that you should live in Delhi happily for a long time. Similarly, our life on earth is only a short journey to eternity. The Apostle Paul prayed that his flock would live on earth in such a way that when they got into eternity they would have no regrets.

In Col. 1:9, the Apostle Paul prayed that the Colossians would be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. One translation of this verse says, “I am praying that you will look at things from God’s point of view.” To have an understanding of the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual understanding and wisdom means that you will look at everything from God’s point of view. For example, when you consider your human body, don’t listen to all that the philosophers and experts in the world are saying, but look at it from God’s view point. Jesus came in a human body, so don’t despise your human body. Look at everything in life from God’s point of view. That’s a good prayer to pray for ourselves. “Lord, help me to see everything that happens in my life, from Your viewpoint.”

How do I look at the specific circumstances that come into my life, that particular sickness, that thorn in the flesh, that person who is treating me badly? See it all from God’s viewpoint. Does it surprise God when these things happen in our lives? No, it does not surprise God, even though it surprises me, because I am a human being limited by time and space. But God is not surprised, and when I grow up to God’s viewpoint, I find my heart comes to rest, and many things on earth look very different. So, asking for God’s viewpoint is a very good prayer to pray

If you can build a church where people have learned to look at things from God’s viewpoint, you have a spiritual church. You don’t have a spiritual church just because you engage yourselves in a lot of evangelism and social activity. We have to learn to look at things from God’s viewpoint, because it’s only then (Col. 1:10) that we can walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. You can never walk the way God wants you to walk unless you first have your mind looking at things from God’s viewpoint.

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SI Moderator - Greg Gordon