Colossians 4:12 - “Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God.”
This verse gives us great personal insight the local church in the ancient city of Colossae, located in what was then Asia Minor but is modern day Turkey. In his letter, to the church he sends greetings from an apparent hometown son, a guy by the name of Epaphras. And his close association with these people he loved, made him pray in a way that Paul noted.
The apostle says that Epaphras struggled on their behalf in his prayers. The word for struggle in the Greek (agonidzomai) is where our word “agonize” originates and was used in the first century to describe the striving, contending, and competing of athletes in the Olympic style games that were common. He approached praying for them with the blood, sweat and tears of an athlete.
This is our challenge today as we pray for those we love and know. We often mention people in our prayers and include them in a daily kind of routine. But agonizing in prayer is a different thing. The challenge today is to agonize in prayer. Really appeal to God on their behalf and be like Epaphras today.
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