On Sunday, October 1st Reverend Kenneth I. MacLeod preached on Colossians 2:1-5, a sermon entitled, 'What to pray for the church '.

This particular letter of Paul's is interesting because it is addressed to a church he has not visited. In most of his epistles, Paul is addressing people he knows, but he has not, in fact, met those in the church of Colssae.

Many of the leaders of that church had spent time in Ephesus, where they had heard Paul preaching and been converted under his ministry. Then they, in turn, took the gospel back to Colossae and ministered to the people there. This is how the spread of the gospel works, with each one of us acting like a link in one continuous chain, everyone with their own part to play. Even those of us who feel that we are not doing much in the Lord's service can take comfort in reflecting upon Andrew. He was not one of Jesus' three closest disciples, and was frequently eclipsed by those who were. Nonetheless, it was Andrew who first brought Peter to the Lord - Peter, under whose preaching thousands were converted.

In this letter, Paul tells the church at Colossae how he toils for them. A great deal of this would have been spiritual toil. Prayer is often a struggle, even in terms of following the everyday discipline to be in prayer, despite life's many distractions. Although life is probably even more hectic now, Jesus had counselled His followers to find a secret place where they might pray by themselves as individuals.

Mr MacLeod emphasised the need for the church to be in prayer, for each member of the church to pray secretly, that God might answer their prayers openly.

In the text, where Paul's struggle is spoken of, the word used shares the same etymology as 'agony', so we know that he agonised in prayer. - and this over people he had never met.

Christians are often asked to pray for people they don't know. It can be a challenge for some, but presented Paul with no difficulty. He could pray for those he had never met physically because he had bonded with them spiritually.

He was prevented from going to them at Colossae because of his detention in prison. In his darker moments, he must surely have wondered what the Lord was doing with him, allowing him to remain imprisoned while there was such need of gospel ministry. Despite his physical restriction, however - or perhaps because of it - Paul was able to reach out spiritually, through prayer.

When you consider who it is we address in prayer, the God who called all things into being, it is worth remembering that this is no small thing we do.

As he languished in prison, with a sense of his impending execution, Paul must surely have petitioned the Lord to permit him a good death. Despite the brightness of his conversion and subsequent ministry, he would have feared any weakening in his faith in the face of death.

We should all pray that, in the face of weakening and death, we would continue in faith and maintain the ability to witness - by walk if not by words.

It is the Holy Spirit who prompts us to pray. He then intercedes for us as we pray - not as Jesus does but, in knowing God's mind, He ensures that we pray in accordance with His will for us.

Paul's prayer exhorts the church to be encouraging to each other. That is, building one another up, and not undermining each other. He also prayed that the church would be knit together, which is to say that they should be tightly bound in bonds of love. Without love, there would be no church. Jesus Christ, who is love, is head of that church and loving one another s the greatest mark of one of His followers.

Finally, he prays for enlightenment. Here, the apostle wishes Christians to cultivate an understanding so attuned to God that they can immediately discern right from wrong. The knowledge and wisdom of which Paul speaks is what we often pray for ourselves.

Mr MacLeod closed by drawing a distinction between knowing of Jesus, and knowing Him personally. He urged those who do not yet know Jesus personally and savingly, to emulate Paul this very day and ask for knowledge and acceptance of Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour.