“2 Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. 3 And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. 4 Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should.” Colossians 4:2-4 NIV


To devote ourselves to prayer does not mean that we are always to be praying, but Paul is saying we always have a reason to pray. Paul says that we are to “be watchful” or “be alert”. If we took this verse and literally translated it from the Greek it could say “be ready to seize the moment”. That is kind of like when Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society said “Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary!” I think Paul is saying here that every moment we live can be captured and given to God.  That is good news, because sometimes we have bad days, difficult situations, moments in which we are overwhelmed with sadness, despair, guilt, or pain. Paul is saying here in this verse, “use prayer to seize that moment for God, hand it over to Him.” Paul also says we need to be thankful. To be thankful means that we know that God has been faithful to take care of us in the past, and if we seize the moment in prayer we can count on Him to take care of our present and our future. In v. 3-4 Paul asks that they would pray for open doors, for places for him to go and share the story of Jesus. The context of the entire book of Colossians is “live a life that honors God in every moment”. I think Paul is saying “pray that I will be so connected to God that I will seize every moment to tell lost people the story of Jesus, and share the transforming message of grace.

So I will take a little bit of liberty with the script of Dead Poets Society and say this “seize the moment with prayer, and witness how God makes our lives extraordinary!”