What Do I Need to Flourish?

Scripture — Colossians 1:9-10 (NRSV)

For this reason, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God.

Devotion

I imagine that everyone who reads this devotion would like to flourish. That’s certainly true for me. I expect it is for you also. We want to live full and faithful lives. We want to exercise our gifts for the sake of others as well as for our own fulfillment. We are eager to experience the joys of life, though acknowledging that there will also be plenty of sorrows. We desire to flourish in the mode of Psalm 92, bearing fruit throughout life, even when we are old.

So, we might well wonder, “What do I need to flourish?” This is a crucial question, for which there are a variety of answers. Psalm 92, for example, points to the importance of righteousness by claiming that “The righteous flourish like the palm tree” (92:12). We flourish when we are rightly related to God, and through God to other people and the world.

Colossians 1:9-10 offers another way to answer the “What do I need to flourish?” question. In this passage, the Apostle Paul prays for the Colossian Christians, that they might “be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding” (1:9). This enables them to “lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as [they] bear fruit in every good work” (1:10). So then, what enables us to flourish, to bear fruit in every part of life? Paul’s answer here is “the knowledge of God’s will.”

Often, when we speak of God’s will, we’re thinking in specific terms. I want to know God’s will for me in a particular situation. Should I take this job offer? Should I marry this person? Should our family move? Should I retire? etc. No doubt knowing God’s specific will help us flourish. But when Colossians speaks of “the knowledge of God’s will,” it’s concerned mainly with the “big things,” such as: What is God’s will for the world? What is God’s will for the universe? What is God’s will for the church? What is God’s will for humankind? The more we understand God’s will for the big things, the more we’ll be able to grasp God’s specific will for us.

How can we “be filled with the knowledge of God’s will?” First, this comes as we read, meditate upon, pray over, talk with others about, and seek to live God’s truth in Scripture. Here, we will learn what God is doing in the big picture. Because the Bible has been inspired by the Holy Spirit, it is a uniquely trustworthy source of “spiritual wisdom and understanding.”

Scripture reveals God’s will, not only for all things, but also for all human beings. We are all to be fruitful (Gen 1:28). We are to love God and our neighbor (Mark 12:28-31). We are to grow to be more and more like Jesus (Rom 8:29; 2 Cor 3:18; Eph 4:13-15; 1 Thes 4:3). We are to offer our bodies to God as worship and to be renewed in our minds (Rom 12:1-2). Such renewal will enable us to “discern . . . the will of God” (Rom 12:2).

This renewal is a result of God’s presence in our lives through the Holy Spirit. Since God’s Spirit lives within us as individual Christians and among us in Christian community, we can be guided by the Spirit in the specifics of God’s will for us. The Holy Spirit will give gifts of knowledge and wisdom to us and to others so that we might be guided by the Spirit. The Spirit will shape both our minds and our hearts so that we might truly know God’s will, both broadly and specifically.

Of course, much, much more could be said in response to the question of this devotion: What do I need to flourish? In fact, the De Pree Center offers the Flourishing in the Third Third of Life video-based course that provides an expansive and in-depth answer to this question for people in or approaching the third third of life. But what we learn from Colossians 1:9-10 is absolutely foundational. If we wish to flourish, we need to know God’s will for all things as well as for our own lives.

Find all Life for Leaders devotions here. Explore what the Bible has to say about work at the High Calling archive, hosted by the unique website of our partners, the Theology of Work Project. Reflection on today’s Life for Leaders theme can be found here: “What Kind of Calling Do All Christians Share?” – Andy Crouch.