“So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of His will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding.”
See these types of prayers are important to us as we continue to grow and learn to be like Christ. My passion is Jesus and knowing Him more and more, but it is also for all people to belong to Him. When we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior we receive the Holy Spirit and the bridge to the Father - eternal life. But when we just believe we get stuck in this world sometimes and it starts to weigh us down. There is freedom in the name of Jesus and we need to seek it with all our hearts and know that it's not about earning, it's about using it.
See, Paul's prayer is that they get complete knowledge of His will and wisdom and understanding, this is how we live surrendered to our feelings and to the lies of the world. In verse 10 it says, “Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.” See, we can know God better and belong to Jesus. Don't get satisfied with believing in Him, keep going so you know Him better and your light shines so others start noticing a difference in you. (Don't get me wrong ,we have to believe, but don't stay there.) There is so much more He has for us, desire all that He offers so the way we live with honor Him. It talked about fruit in His word, and if you have any question what that fruit should look like here is Galatians 5:22-24. "But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to His cross and crucified them there.”
When we belong to Christ we don't live by our feelings, we desire to let them go and live the way Jesus has modeled for us. Verse 25 says, “Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.” Every part of our lives means just that, every part, we can't think that we can pick and choose what parts we want to change. We can't think of the word "surrender" as a negative word because for God it is a sign of strength and love. When we get knowledge of His will, spiritual wisdom, and understanding we will grow to see why Jesus said “...My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” Jesus "surrendered" and was strong, let go and let the Holy Spirit take control and we will see that surrendering will open our hearts and help us belong to Jesus in every way. Amen