Is Paul just praying big? Does he really, really think it can happen? Is it one of those shoot-for-the-moon-and-maybe-you-might-get-off-the-ground sort of requests?

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.    (Colossians 1:9-10 ESV)

It’s that phrase “fully pleasing to Him” which seems a bit ambitious . . . a little over the top. Really?

Paul prays that these believers would walk in a manner worthy . . . bear fruit in every good work . . . increase in the knowledge of God . . . and be fully pleasing to Him. I get setting my feet on the pilgrim pathway and seeking to keep in step with the Spirit . . . I get fruit-bearing as the Spirit works through us . . . I get the “work in progress” of coming to a greater experiential knowledge of God . . . but to be fully pleasing? . . . pleasing in everything? . . . pleasing in all aspects? Not sure I can do that. Exactly!!!

In fact Paul goes on to say that He’s done it all already . . .

. . . giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.    (Colossians 1:12-14 ESV)

Qualified . . . Delivered . . . Transferred. We have been made sufficient and rendered fit for the inheritance reserved for God’s people . . . we have been rescued from the power of darkness . . . and we have been “translated” (KJV) into a new world . . . the world of the light of the kingdom of God’s Son. By His work alone . . . by His grace alone . . . we were qualified for, delivered from, and transferred into the kingdom. Nothing more we can do to attain any higher standing.

So I don’t think that being fully pleasing is about fully performing. But I think it is linked to fully pursuing . . .

How is “Home” programmed on my internal GPS . . what is my heart set on? Where are my eyes focused . . . on things above or things on earth? Is my greatest desire to see my will be done or to be filled with the knowledge of His will? Am I in the drivers seat, leaning to my own understanding and relying on my own smarts and wisdom . . . or am I trusting in the Lord and seeking the mind of Christ as made accessible by the Spirit of God?

I think of King of David . . . not a perfect man, but one who was pleasing to the Lord, the one who God calls “a man after My heart, who will do all My will” (Acts 13:22). Not that everything David did was God’s will . . . had more than one “swing-and-a-miss” during the course of his life . . . can anyone say, “Bathsheba?” But one thing David did do was purpose to follow the Lord, if not flawlessly, than, as much as lied within him, faithfully.

The Father has done the work . . . ours is to determine to do the walk. He has secured our redemption . . . ours is to share with Him our failings and know that the blood of Christ is all sufficient to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1John 1:9). He has transferred into the kingdom of light . . . ours is to take Him at His word believing that the work He has begun in us He will complete in us (Php. 1:6).

Fully pleasing to Him . . . O’ that I might pray big too . . . by His grace alone . . . for His glory alone . . .