Verse of the Day for July 29

Colossians 4 opens with a word to masters about treating servants fairly, and then, with no change of tone, Paul says, Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving. Prayer sits among the duties of an ordinary household, next to paying people what is right.

Continue is a long road word. It assumes you will get tired, that some days prayer will feel like walking uphill in the heat. The instruction is not to feel strongly. It is to keep going.

Watch adds something. It is the word for staying awake. You think of the disciples in Gethsemane, asked to watch and falling asleep. A long road dulls the eyes. Watching means praying with your attention switched on, noticing what God is doing along the way.

And thanksgiving keeps it from turning grim. Paul is in chains, for which I am also in bonds, and still he wants thanks to run alongside the asking. He asks for a door of utterance rather than a door out of prison.

On a long road you do not pray once and arrive. You pray in the morning queue for water, at the end of a twelve hour shift, and again next month when nothing has changed. Keep your eyes open. Give thanks for the mile you just walked.

Continuing in prayer is mostly a matter of not stopping.

Thanksgiving keeps a long prayer from turning bitter.