In Prayer: We should be overcomers

And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. May you be strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.
Colossians 1:9-12

Paul and Timothy didn’t pray that the Colossians would merely survive through a difficult time; they prayed that they would thrive. In our daily battle against sin and the world, we should be overcomers. Endurance, or long-suffering, is the ability to bear prolonged hardship without retaliation. What great strength is needed to bear up under the burdens of life, but God gives us even more than that. Paul and Timothy ask that the Colossians would thrive with a calm delight and cheerfulness, or as translated here, joy. These three graces—endurance, patience, and joy—combine to make a great witness of Christ working in His followers. Only by God’s grace is this possible. We must pray that our brothers and sisters in Christ will glorify God through joyfully bearing up under suffering.

In Prayer is taken from past Samaritan Ministries monthly prayer guides.