SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/6/2014 9:22 AM
My Worship Time
Focus: PT-1
Pastors Desire Their People’s Prayers
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 2
Thessalonians 3:1-2
Message of the
verses: “1 Finally, brethren, pray
for us that the word of the Lord will spread rapidly and be glorified, just as it did also with you;
2 and that we will be rescued from perverse and evil men; for not all have
faith.”
Just a reminder about the word “finally” which we wrote
about in our last SD and that is in this case that the word means a change of
topic and not the end of the letter even though this is the last chapter of 2
Thessalonians. Paul has used this word
to change the subject in many of his letters even though he was not at the end
of the letter.
Let us talk about the natural abilities that Paul had and
there are many of them. We think back
when he was younger as he sat at the feet of the most brilliant Rabi of his
time and was taught by him, therefore he knew the Law probably better than any
of his day. John MacArthur writes “he
was a brilliant, logical, and persuasive thinker and communicator; and he was
spiritually perceptive and possessed much experience in missions and church
planting.” When one looks at this list
it is no wonder that Paul was a successful missionary, probably the best of all
of the apostles, but the following is what he wrote to the Colossian church “I
labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me” (Col. 1:29). I am not saying here that God does not use
our natural abilities that we had before we became a believer in Jesus
Christ. I have seen many people play the
piano and sing with the natural abilities that God has given them at birth, but
once we become a born again believer we have a new spirit and we also have
gifts from the Holy Spirit given to us to work in the church we are going to,
and these are things that God uses for the cause of Christ. MacArthur goes on “He placed no confidence in
the flesh but knew that whatever ministry success he enjoyed was due to the
power of God at work in his life—a power that energized his natural giftedness
for supernatural impact (cf. Gal. 2:20).
Since he depended on the Lord for every aspect of his ministry, he frequently
requested his people to pray for him (Rom. 15:30-32; Eph. 6:19-20; Col. 4:3; 1
Thes. 5:25; Phhilem. 4:6; cf. 2 Cor. 1:11; Phil. 1:19).”
As I stated in our last SD Paul usually began his letter
stating that he was going to or continually did pray for those he was writing
to and then at the end he asked for their prayers and this was the case in 1
Thessalonians and now in 2 Thessalonians.
As you read through the last part of the book of Acts and in some of his
letters you can see why he asked for prayer in many of his letters for he lived
a very dangerous life for the cause of Christ as God said he would. “10 Now there was a disciple at Damascus
named Ananias; and the Lord said to him in a vision, "Ananias." And
he said, "Here I am, Lord." 11 And the Lord said to him, "Get up
and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for a
man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying, 12 and he has seen in a vision a
man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him, so that he might regain his
sight." 13 But Ananias answered, "Lord, I have heard from many about
this man, how much harm he did to Your saints at Jerusalem; 14 and here he has
authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Your name." 15
But the Lord said to him, "Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to
bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; 16 for I
will show him how much he must suffer for My name’s sake" (Acts 9:10-16).”
As we begin to look at Paul’s request we see that not
only was he asking for prayer for him, but also for his coworkers. MacArthur writes “Pray is in the present
tense (proseuchesthe), meaning that
he asked the Thessalonians to ‘continually pray,’ or ‘make prayer a constant
pattern’ in their lives (cf. 1 Thess. 5:17).”
You can also go and look up the SD that was written on that verse from
last month’s SD’s. What we see in Paul’s
asking for these requests to pray for him is his meekness, for after all he was
a very important person in the early church, but Paul knew that if he was to
continue to accomplish things for the Lord that he needed continual prayer from
those whom were converted through his ministry.
As we look at this subject it carries over to our Pastors that we have
today and shows us that they need our prayers too, especially when preaching
the gospel is becoming a dangerous endeavor in today’s world. We can also see that Paul believed in prayer
even from very young believers and that is exactly what the Thessalonian
believers were.
Paul’s first was “pray for us that the word of the Lord will
spread rapidly and be glorified.” I just
looked up the phrase “The word of the Lord” and searched the entire Bible on my
Online Bible software and found it 255 times in the entire Bible. Now in the New Testament this phrase usually
speaks of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and this is how Paul was using it here as
he wanted the word of the Lord to spread rapidly and that it would be
glorified.
John MacArthur writes “Spread rapidly (trecho) literally means ‘to speed on or
‘to make progress.’” It was Paul’s
desire to have the Word of the Lord advance like a runner who was moving ahead
without anything to slow him down. Can I
say the same thing today or am I more interested in other things that are going
on in my life, things that do not have an eternal meaning.
Next we will look at what John MacArthur has to say about
“Be glorified (doxazo), meaning to be
praised, honored, and exalted, expresses the apostle’s desire that the gospel
be received with the proper respect, that people would accept and affirm it as
the saving truth of God.” MacArthur then
sites how this worked as seen in Acts 12:44-49.
“44 The next Sabbath nearly the whole city assembled to
hear the word of the Lord. 45 But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy
and began contradicting the things spoken by Paul, and were blaspheming. 46
Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said, "It was necessary that the
word of God be spoken to you first; since you repudiate it and judge yourselves
unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. 47 “For so
the Lord has commanded us, ’I HAVE PLACED YOU AS A LIGHT FOR THE GENTILES, THAT
YOU MAY BRING SALVATION TO THE END OF THE EARTH.’" 48 When the Gentiles heard this,
they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord; and as many as
had been appointed to eternal life believed. 49 And the word of the Lord was
being spread through the whole region.”
We will continue looking at the rest of this section in
our next SD.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: It is my desire
to have the right attitude about how I can proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ,
that it should be something that is a top or close to the top of my priorities.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I desire to continue to read and study the
Word of God each day so that when the Lord brings someone into my life to hear
the Word of the Lord that I will be ready to tell them of the hope that is in
me that came from the Lord.
Memory verses for the
week: Colossians 3:10-11.
10 and have put on the new
self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One
who created him—11 a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and
Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but
Christ is all and in all.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “For a burying place for his
family” (Genesis 23:7-9).
Today’s Bible
question: “What did Peter stir up?” (A tough question)
Answer in our next SD.
11/6/2014 10:31 AM
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