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Praying for Thessalonians (and Houstonians)
August 17, 2005
The other day during my morning time with God I was reading through 2 Thessalonians. One of the verses that I spent some time with was chapter 3, verse 5:
"May the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the steadfastness of Christ."
What a great prayer to pray for those under our care. We know that it is God who works by the power of His Spirit both for our salvation and for our sanctification. He "directs our hearts". As I read and thought about the verse, I began to think about what it means to be directed into the love of God and into the steadfastness of Christ. Here's some of what I thought about...
What is the love of God like?
- Kind, patient, and gentle
- Keeps no record of wrong
- Always builds up
- Not boastful or proud
- Corrects gently but firmly
- Sacrificial, giving up life
- Unconditional
What is the steadfastness of Christ like?
- Dedicated to intimacy with the Father
- Seeks God's glory above all things
- Bold to speak the truth
- Not swayed by culture or popular opinion
- Always full of grace
- Says "Not my will, but your will be done"
- Unwavering in calling people to the Kingdom
I could have gone on and on... what an amazing picture. Think about this - what if we earnestly prayed these things for oursleves and those in our churches each and every day? Not the generic, blanket prayer. Passionate, earnest prayer from the core of our being - calling out the names of our people before the Lord. "Father, give *John* the steadfast strength to speak truth in his workplace, to be bold in living for your glory, standing firmly in your grace - not the approval of his friends." etc.
Over the past few weeks, God has been dealing with me about the lack of intercessory prayer that most pastors engage in. (Of course, this starts with me.) Many of us pray for our people, but do we labor for them before the Father? Do we shut ourselves in our prayer closets and weep over their sin, their apathy? Do we rejoice and cry out in thanksgiving for their spiritual progress?
Probably my greatest hero in the ministry is Charles Spurgeon. As I've been reading Lectures to My Students recently, there was a quote that popped out at me today. Somone was asked, "Have you heard Spurgeon preach?" The other man answered, "Yes, but even more, have you heard him pray?"
What would our churches look like if pastors locked themselves in their studies and pleaded in prayer, rather than loitering in the business section of our local bookstore trying to find the next strategic fix to keep our church programs filled with people? I've been down the latter road before, but over the past year God is showing me the joy of the former. My prayer is that countless other men would (re)discover the delight of being a pastor - a shepherd who feeds and leads the flock God has given him.
Comments
and carry that over to parents praying for their children. really, all of us praying for our families. it's easy to pray for God's blessing, God's changing power but to truly grieve and rejoice in dedicated times of prayer before the Lord on behalf of those we love, that's hard. what a beautiful gift though. it may seem time consuming but parents tend to worry about their kids anyway and most of us vent frustrations about our families to our friends or just the air, let's take that time to be on our knees before the throne of grace on behalf of those that we love. and those that we can't stand.
Posted by: jmw at August 17, 2005 06:43 PM
Good post. I have been greatly edified by praying through Biblical prayers. I often use the Lord's prayer as a sort of template as I pray but recently I been going through some other prayers (e.g. Eph.1:17-19). Overall, my prayer life is where I struggle most. I can read my Bible and thousands of book's on theological matters but prayer always comes with real difficulty.
Posted by: Michael at August 17, 2005 09:33 PM
I find prayer hard to really wrap my mind around. Not the how of prayer, but the spiritual mechanics of it. I mean, we have an omniscient, omnipresent God so He know what we need, what we want, what we desire, what we are anxious for-everything-before we even know it ourselves. When we come before Him in prayer He knows what we are going to say before it is said. And ultimately it is His will which is going to be accomplished. And yet we're told to pray. And not only that, our prayers are answered. Our petitions are granted. Sometimes even in very tangible and immediate ways. We're even told to ask while already believing that God has heard us and granted our prayer. It rather blows my mind. I know I was a lot better at this when I was first a Christian. Much better at simply reading the Word and going- ok, if that's what it says, that's what I do. Prayers of faith came very easy. I knew without a doubt that if I needed a mountain physically moved I could ask God and it would happen. I never needed a mountain moved, but that didn't change the fact that I knew God had said that He would do it. I want to pray like that again.
Posted by: tiffany at August 18, 2005 03:53 PM
Please labor over us. You know we always need it. I will try to labor over you in prayer. I appreciate that I know people well enough through this community that I could pray truly for them. Generic prayers are hard to see answers to.
Posted by: Heather at August 20, 2005 07:27 PM
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this is a fantabulous post. it made me think... and wnat to act.
Posted by: Jessica at August 17, 2005 04:41 PM