Colossians 1:9-13
9 For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; 10 That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness; 12Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: 13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
The end of Paul's prayer for these people doesn't end like most of our prayers; "In Jesus's name, amen. Paul transitions from the request that he has been making for them directly into giving thanks to God, a sure sign of a prayer prayed in faith. Prayers that fail to thank God for what he is going to do lack the necessary faith. How many times have our prayers ended and we got up from our place as doubtful as we went down? Not Paul, he never says amen, he begins to give thanks to the father and something extraordinary takes place. At the mention of the Father's name Paul is reminded of what all the father has done for him and them. If you continue to verse 14 the same thing happens at the mention of the Son, Paul is reminded and therefore reminds us of all that the Son has done. That is the nature of thanksgiving, we may not feel very thankful when we begin but at the mention of His name at the thought of his goodness the Holy Ghost floods our hearts and minds with all the blessings we have in Him, and what started as a simple thanksgiving turns into a revelation of God's goodness in your life! Dear Christian, do you know what I speak of? Have you never been raptured away in prayer to a place of remembrance and thankfulness to God the Father? If not I pray that your prayer life would become fervent and your thanksgiving to be set on fire by the Holy Ghost; "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much!"
This thanksgiving was a result of the last few verses but now through this thanksgiving, God reveals to Paul, by the Holy Ghost, a few things that we have to be thankful for.
Transformation
Blessing number one is that "He hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light." The phrase that stood out to me is "He hath made us." He has made us into something else, we are a new creature, old things have passed away and all things have become new! What a revelation! What a thrill, I am not the man I used to be, literally. When God saved you by his grace through faith in his Son, your old man died with Christ and the life that you now live is by faith in his Son. [Rom 6:6, 2 Cor 5:17, Gal 6:15] This is something to give thanks for! Thank God I am not the same old man I used to be, That old man was crucified on the cross of calvary, buried in a tomb in Jerusalem, carried into a land uninhabited by the hand of a fit man, and left there never to return. That fit man, Jesus Christ, came back from the grave with new life, with my new life, and now my old man is as far removed as the east is from the west and the new creation is as eternal and sure as God himself and all of this was made effectual to me the day that I was born again "Baptised into his death"! Thanks be to God!
What he made us was a new creature, why he made us was "To be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light." He has transformed us into worthy recipients of his inheritance. Before this transformation took place we could not have received an eternal inheritance, we were purely mortal, and spiritually dead [Eph 2:1, Gen 2:17] What good is an eternal inheritance to eternally dead people, inheritances are given to the living not the dead, we couldn't have received it if we wanted to, but he has quickened us, made us a new and living creature and now because of the spiritual life we have we can receive the inheritance. Because we are alive and because we don't receive it on our merit. Jesus met the stipulations and requirements, he was God's Son in who he was well pleased, and now we are "In Christ." He is the head and we are the body, his inheritance is our inheritance we are "Joint heirs!" Oh friend this is fuel for the fires of thankfulness that "He made us" and what He has made us makes us recipients of Jesus's Inheritance! Eternally transformed!
Translation
Not only did God transform us but he has "delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son." Had God made us a new creature and a worthy creature it would have been enough for us to be thankful for all eternity but he would not leave his new, worthy creatures in the hands of the enemy. We were once held by the powers of darkness, we served under the banner of the god of this world, and some served under filthy blood stained banners, their lot in this life was to go to hell with their eyes wide open and without pretense, others serving in the kingdom of darkness under the clean, neatly sown banner of self-righteousness. Whether you served under unrighteousness or self-righteousness you served in the kingdom of darkness. But thanks be to God that when he transformed you he also translated you! He made me a new creature and all at once snatched me out of the horrible pit and the miry clay and set my feet upon the rock! Perhaps one of the greatest object lessons about this ministry of translation and transformation can be seen in the lesson God taught to Jeremiah at the potter's house. Just a dirty pile of clay; useless, purposeless, until the heart of the potter is moved to form a vessel, with his heart engaged he reaches down already knowing what this dirty pile of clay will be, no one can see what the potter see's. Jeremiah sees a pile of clay but the potter's heart knows what his hands are capable of, with time and wisdom, and pressure this clay will become what it already is in the potter's mind. The clay is translated from the mudhole to the potter's house. Dear friend, that is you and me, there we were in the kingdom of darkness, useless, purposeless, but the love of God reached down into the slime pit of humanity and plucked us out. We didn't look like much, to most, just an out-of-place pile of clay in the Father's house. Now whether you have just been plucked out, or you are on his wheel, in his oven, or in daily use in his hands the fact is you were translated from where you were to where he is. Then Jeremiah saw the ministry of transformation, the potter took something that seemed useless and is going to "Make" it useful. Something that had no purpose will have a purpose. Before his eyes he sees the potter press and shape and hydrate the clay and soon it becomes a "work" then it becomes a "vessel." It is transformed into something totally different than it was. No longer can you say it is just a pile of clay but it starts to look like the rest of the vessels in the potter's house, it has been transformed by the heart and hand of the potter. You and I have been transformed by the heart and hand of the Father, He saw down through the annuls of time and saw the church, it looked like a bunch of drunken miscreants on the day of Pentecost, just a pile of outplace Jews but oh how the church began to take form and turn the world upside down! My self, I was just a young boy with no purpose of my own, no usefulness but God reached down his great big hand and translated me out of the muck and mire and all these 24 years his hand has yet to cease shaping and forming and reforming and firing me, and using me! We are not what we were and we are not where we were! He has "made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:" and He has "delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son."
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