The Big Three

I'm not talking about the trio from the Celtics. The Big Three that I'm referring to is praying, speaking, and living, and this is all in the context of the gospel. Continuing our series in Colossians at HFG, we looked at chapter 4 verses 2 through 6. Verse 2 talks about devoting yourself to prayer. We're to constantly be praying - communicating with God, laying our requests before Him, confessing our sins, and giving Him praise and thanks. In this context, we're talking about praying for opportunities for the gospel; and when those opportunities are there, that we would take them and speak the gospel. We should be out there sharing the gospel - trying to reach those for Christ, of course with the Spirit's power. We're not only to share the gospel but also to live the gospel. Verses 5 and 6 speak of our conduct amongst unbelievers and of our speech. We're to be wise, especially when we're around unbelievers, so if God gives us an opportunity for the gospel, we would take full advantage of it.

These three things - praying, speaking, and living - balance each other out; you need to have all three. There are relationships amongst all three. (I wish I wrote down what Angelo said about these, but you should be able to see how these interact.) Praying without speaking is living in fear. Praying without living is disobedient. Speaking without praying is going without power. Speaking without living is hypocritical. Living without praying is being self-sufficient. Living without speaking doesn't reflect Christ - it's basically moralism. Praying, speaking, and living all work together. Oh, that we would speak the gospel, pray for God to work through us and to prepare the way, and that our lives would reflect what we say.