You Can't Grow Alone

Today's Verse

⁹For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,¹⁰so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God,¹¹being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might so that you may have full endurance and patience, and joyfully¹²giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light.¹³He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of His beloved Son,¹⁴in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.¹⁵The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.¹⁶For in Him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through Him and for Him.¹⁷He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.¹⁸And He is the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning and firstborn from among the dead, so that in all things He may have preeminence.¹⁹For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him,²⁰and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through the blood of His cross.²¹Once you were alienated from God and were hostile in your minds, engaging in evil deeds.²²But now He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy, unblemished, and blameless in His presence—²³if indeed you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope of the gospel you heard, which has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.²⁴Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions for the sake of His body, which is the church.²⁵I became its servant by the commission God gave me to fully proclaim to you the word of God,²⁶the mystery that was hidden for ages and generations but is now revealed to His saints.²⁷To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.²⁸We proclaim Him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ.²⁹To this end I also labor, striving with all His energy working powerfully within me.