PRAYER FOR SPIRITUAL GROWTH

9 For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven’t stopped praying for you. We are askingk that you may be filled with the knowledgel of his willm in all wisdom and spiritual understanding,D 10 so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good workn and growing in the knowledge of God,o 11 being strengthenedp with all power,q according to his gloriousr might, so that you may have great endurance and patience, joyfully 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled youE to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light.s 13 He has rescuedt us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdomu of the Sonv he loves.w 14 In him we have redemption,F the forgiveness of sins.

THE CENTRALITY OF CHRIST

15 He is the image of the invisible God,x

the firstborn over all creation.y

16 For everything was created by him,z

in heaven and on earth,

the visible and the invisible,

whether thrones or dominions

or rulers or authorities—

all things have been created through him and for him.aa

17 He is before all things,ab

and by him all thingsac hold together.

18 He is also the head of the body, the church;

he is the beginning,ad

the firstborn from the dead,ae

so that he might come to have

first place in everything.

19 For God was pleased to have

all his fullnessaf dwell in him,ag

20 and through him to reconcile

everything to himself,

whether things on earth or things in heaven,

by making peaceah

through his blood,ai shed on the cross.G,aj

21 Once you were alienated and hostile in your minds as expressed in your evil actions. 22 But now he has reconciled you by his physical body through his death,ak to present you holy, faultless,al and blameless before himam—