Verse 2 “‘Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart.'” (NLT) The ESV Bible says “’Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.'” We should persevere in prayer. Never give up. A friend once told me that your perseverance never has to run out because we draw from God’s strength to keep persevering and His strength never runs dry! And while we ask God for present help, we must not forget his faithfulness in the past. This will keep us grateful as we wait. Often when we do not see answers to prayer, we can become discouraged and give up. But Paul is telling them to watch their prayers and make sure there is thanksgiving there. Something you can be grateful for God’s faithfulness or response to a past prayer. If you don’t remind yourself how God has worked in the past, you might get into the mindset of thinking you’ll never answer your prayer now. So keep your mind living in a grateful space. This will help you persevere in prayer because you know if God answered before, He’s going to answer again!

And while we ask God for help in our present situations, we must not forget His faithfulness in the past. All the things He’s done in our lives. All the promises He has kept. How He has rescued us. Thank Him for those and for the access to His power that when we pray, He is going to work. Instead of praying, Lord, heal me. You can pray, Lord, thank you for your healing that is already moving through me. Our minds should always be in a place of thanking God. This place is gratitude spurs us on to keep praying. It reminds us of our faithful God. It also makes us live from a heart of gratitude in our relationships with others. When we live from this place of thanking God for our husbands, our kids, our family, and friends, we will be less likely to overreact when we are frustrated. And when we look back at God’s faithful work in the past, it makes us confident and secure today knowing He’s going to do it again in our present. He is a faithful God. That’s one of His character traits that never changes. So when I pray, I can already thank Him for answering my prayer because He is faithful and He will do it. This isn’t like a magic wand where God performs according to your will. He works for His plans and purposes because God’s plans are much better than ours (whether or not you can see that from your human eyes or comprehend it with your human mind). So pray His will. The Bible tells us what His will is so as we read, be looking for His will. His plan. His purposes. They are in here. And then pray for that! He is a good God. He created us for healing, a renewed mind (a mind like His), love, relationships with others, the Church… these are examples of God’s will.

Verse 3 “‘Pray for us, too, that God will give us many opportunities to speak about his mysterious plan concerning Christ. That is why I am here in chains.'” (NLT) Notice here that Paul is asking the church to pray “that God will give us many opportunities to speak about his mysterious plan concerning Christ. That is why I’m here in chains.” Here’s a guy who is locked up in prison and has been beaten but instead of asking for prayers for his safety, he asks for prayers for perseverance in confessing the gospel. That he may be courageous and share the Truth about Jesus. His life was second compared to the glory of Jesus and spreading the gospel.

Notice Paul never prayed to get out of prison. In another book of the Bible, Paul was in prison and the Lord opened all the prison doors and let all the captives free! Even Paul… though Paul hung around a little longer to share the gospel with a prison guard. But I bring this up because Paul had access to pray that he would be released from prison but he recognized God’s appointment here… God’s setup. You see, Paul was trying to get the gospel to Rome. When he was arrested, they took him to the prison in Rome. Now that’s probably not the way Paul wanted to get to Rome, but God got him there. So now Paul is in the prison in Rome and he’s sharing the gospel with all his cellmates and the prison guards. He’s advancing the gospel in Rome! It’s such a lesson! When you’re so focused on Jesus, you can be in a prison marriage, a prison job, a prison situation where you are chained down by financial limitations or time limitations, fear, discouragement, doubts, a painful past, and yet you still see through the situation and thank God. You might ask for the burdens to lift but you don’t focus on what’s “holding you back”. Your focus isn’t on your problems or situation as much as it’s on seeing Jesus today. Praying this way changes you! You remain focused on the bigger picture and look for ways to share Jesus with your children, your friends, your neighbors. Why? Because when you change and they change, it brings glory to God and restores the life that God intended for you to live here on earth – full of health, and good things. We don’t accept Jesus into our hearts and twiddle our thumbs waiting on Heaven. We have access to Jesus’ power now! We can start living a full, restored, abundant life now! We can change our attitude, we can change our lifestyle, we can change our thinking and habits with the help of Jesus and live free from all the garbage we settled into. So keep your prayers on God’s will and less about your worries. And thank Him that it’s already been done in Jesus’ name as soon as that prayer hits the paper or the tip of your tongue or even surfaced in your thoughts.

Verse 5 “’Live wisely among those who are not believers, and make the most of every opportunity.’” (NLT) People on the outside are watching us. They want to see the difference between you and them. Why should they follow Jesus if you look and talk the same as everyone else?

Verse 6 “’Let your conversation be gracious and attractive so that you will have the right response for everyone.’” (NLT) The ESV Bible says “’Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.’” Grace. Your words need to have grace. Leaving space for people to mess up or drop the ball. Grace says “it’s going to be okay. We can get through this or past this.” Notice I said, “we”. We don’t separate ourselves because somebody messed up. We stick together and we get through this. That’s grace. We are called to extend “grace” even if someone does or says something that hurts. It’s easy at the moment to attack back, shooting a dart of hurtful words in retaliation or to defend ourselves or give excuses. But we’re not called to live in our emotions. We’re called to reach for Jesus and live according to His will for us. His will is that we would be gracious. This isn’t allowing people to run all over us. This is expressing Truth in love. Not jabbing back with words that cut others down. At the moment, we can excuse ourselves from the situation or conversation and call on Jesus for healing over the cutting remarks made. Do everything you can to not let these emotions swirl around in our minds and stew over the situation. It’s not healthy. We can choose to fix our eyes on Jesus on the cross, remembering what we’ve been forgiven of, and ask the Holy Spirit to guide our next move.

This verse specifically says “seasoned with salt.” This is a common phrase used in church. Let your words be seasoned with salt. When you add salt to a meal what does it do? It makes it taste better! Everything tastes better with salt. That’s what your speech should be. It should make the situation taste better. Words of grace make the situation better.

We are to have gracious, salty speech. Think of it this way, when you go to add salt to a meal, how does that change the meal? It makes it taste better, doesn’t it! The words of Christ make life taste better. When you are in a tough situation, and someone comes to you with sweet words of grace, with the freeing words of Jesus, the liberating, joyful, loving, kind, peaceful words of Jesus, it makes your life better. That’s gracious, salty speech. It’s words you want to add into your life, like salt into a meal. Everything will taste better with a little grace. When your husband messes up… again, add grace into your speech back to him. When your kids mess up, again, sprinkle some grace right back at them. When your coworker makes things harder for you or the cashier gives you the stink eye because you have a cartload of groceries and a zillion coupons, give them grace. When a car cuts you off, respond with grace. Now someone can try to flatter you or puff you up about yourself, but those words are not lasting. At the end of the day, you know you’re not ‘good’ or worthy or ‘better than.’ That’s why the words of Christ are the salt in speech. He is lasting.

Through some of the scripture, we have to think metaphorically in order to apply it to life. It’s important for us to know what is physically going on at this time so we have an understanding of what those words meant back then. But as we continue to read, the Holy Spirit will help our hearts see the metaphors that apply to our lives.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank you for Jesus, and for opening a way between me and You through prayer. I’m so grateful that I can come to You at any point in my day and commune with the Almighty God in Heaven. Help me to persevere in prayer when my heart grows weary. Help me remember Your faithfulness in the years before, how you’ve answered my prayers back then and you’ll do it again. When I’m tempted to give up on praying for a long-suffering struggle, remind my heart of all that You’ve done in my life. Help me, Holy Spirit, to live from this place of gratitude so that my spirit might be strengthened to persevere. Open the doors, Jesus, for me to share Your Truth with others, and help me to open my mouth in the right season so that I might speak wisdom and Truth on ears that would receive Your gospel message. Help me make the most of every opportunity with my neighbors, my friends, and all those I come in contact with. When I open my mouth, God, I pray for Your thoughts, Your wisdom, Your Truth to come spilling out. I want to hide Your Word in my heart that this is what comes spilling out when I open it. Let every conversation be filled with grace and seasoned with salt, Jesus. Let Your Words season lives and leave people better than they were before. God, may You be glorified all the more. In Jesus’ name, Amen.