2 Thessalonians 1:11-12 (HCSB) And in view of this, we always pray for you that our God will consider you worthy of His calling, and will, by His power, fulfill every desire for goodness and the work of faith, 12 so that the name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified by you, and you by Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
We've recently been considering the importance of prayer which involves at its core prayer for others. Paul outlines here some of the things that we should be praying for on behalf of our brothers and sisters in Christ. That they would behave consistent with their identity as "Christians". That they would live up to their calling, encouraging and challenging them in their faith. That their lives might demonstrate the goodness of Jesus Christ and that their lives would display powerful works of faith.
These things are not accomplished in our own power but through the power of Christ in us, by His grace imparted to us that the "name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified by us, and us by Him." Steve Green lays out the groundwork for our mission as those worthy of His calling in his song "The Mission"-
There's a call going out
Across the land in every nation
A call to those who swear allegiance to the cross of Christ
A call to true humility, to live our live responsibly
To deepen our devotion to the cross at any price
Let us then be sober, moving only in the Spirit
As aliens and strangers in a hostile foreign land
The message we're proclaiming is repentance and forgiveness
The offer of salvation to a dying race of man
Chorus:
To love the Lord our God
Is the heartbeat of our mission
The spring from which our service overflows
Across the street
Or around the world
The mission's still the same
Proclaim and live the Truth
In Jesus' name
In Christ,
Mike
Follow the Verse of the Day blog at http://mikesvotd.blogspot.com
Eph 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace NIV
2 Thessalonians 1:10-12 The Message (MSG)
5-10All this trouble is a clear sign that God has decided to make you fit for the kingdom. You're suffering now, but justice is on the way. When the Master Jesus appears out of heaven in a blaze of fire with his strong angels, he'll even up the score by settling accounts with those who gave you such a bad time. His coming will be the break we've been waiting for. Those who refuse to know God and refuse to obey the Message will pay for what they've done. Eternal exile from the presence of the Master and his splendid power is their sentence. But on that very same day when he comes, he will be exalted by his followers and celebrated by all who believe—and all because you believed what we told you.
11-12Because we know that this extraordinary day is just ahead, we pray for you all the time—pray that our God will make you fit for what he's called you to be, pray that he'll fill your good ideas and acts of faith with his own energy so that it all amounts to something. If your life honors the name of Jesus, he will honor you. Grace is behind and through all of this, our God giving himself freely, the Master, Jesus Christ, giving himself freely.
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