I am highlighting one aspect of discipleship that the Apostle mentions in response to what he has heard about the Colossians who need to know they are indeed true disciples. Here is the 5th “…and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.” (Colossians 1 v 12)
If the only prayer you said in your whole life was ‘thank you’, that would be sufficient.
The Jew spends every day focused on thankfulness. In fact because of a legend regarding a plague that took the lives of 100 people in one day during King David’s reign the rabbi’s came to understand the spiritual reasoning for the plague and thus instituted the need to say 100 blessings of thankfulness to God.
Here is a Jewish prayer: “Even if our mouths were filled with songs like the sea, our tongues with joy like its mighty waves, our lips with praise like the breadth of the sky, if our eyes shone like the sun and the moon, and our hands were spread out like the eagles of heaven, if our feet were as swift as the hind, we should still be incapable of thanking You adequately for one thousandth part of all the love You have shown us.”
But why?
So many people have lived their life with the words ‘You aren’t good enough’ hanging over them. One click on social media and we realise there are more beautiful people than us, more likeable, than us and more importantly, more qualified than us to be somebody special. Everyone else seems to be qualified to have that special moment, romance, dream job, adventurous holiday, big house, how do they do it? What’s wrong with me?
One of the hallmarks of a disciple of Christ is that you are joyfully thankful that He has qualified you to be, do, have and experience … Him!
You have come to know that God says yes to you. He has given all you need to follow Him. He gives you His presence. He bridges the distance between Himself and you. He untangles our mess; He restores and revives us to go again; He cleans our life and chooses us every day to follow Him. Graciously and mercifully calling us to follow. The battle for discipleship will always be focused around qualification.
The Apostle tells the Colossians “You are Qualified!” He was wanting them to realise that they can say NO to those who say we need to enter into performance religion in order to be good enough. Jesus Christ has qualified us to be disciples of His!
Missions Paul 