8PIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/9/2014 6:11 PM
My Worship Time Focus: The Goal or
Reason for Paul’s Prayer
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 2 Thessalonians 1:12
Message of the
verses: “12 so that the name of our
Lord Jesus will be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of
our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
I believe that we can see from this prayer that the
reason or the goal was that the Thessalonians would glorify the Lord Jesus
Christ, and when one thinks about it that should be the reason for all of our
prayers. I know when we pray for
ourselves or another person who is sick and if the Lord does heal us or the
person we pray for then that surely brings glory to the Lord. MacArthur writes “The phrase “the name of our
Lord, reminiscent the familiar Old Testament phrase ‘the name of the Lord’ (cf.
Gen. 4:26; Ex. 33:19; Deut. 5:11; Isa. 42:8, clearly and unequivocally
identifies Jesus as Yahweh of the Old Testament. To glorify the name of the Lord means to
honor and exalt all that He is.”
We have a wonderful example of this from the prayer that
Daniel prays in Daniel chapter nine, a prayer that I have mentioned on many
different occasions in my Spiritual Diaries.
“"O Lord,
hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and take action! For Your own sake, O my
God, do not delay, because Your city and Your people are called by Your
name."” Another example
actually comes from the lips of our Lord when He said to His disciples “Let your light shine before men
in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is
in heaven (Matt. 5:16).”
We see the phrase “in Him” in verse twelve and Paul has
in mind that when believers glorify the Lord, they in turn will be glorified in
Him. I have often said that a good look
at looking at a believer is that he is like a hose that the water flows
through, and the water that flows through him is the works that God desires for
you to do for the cause of Christ. Now
the hose, in this case actually receives glory because it is being used by the
Lord, but the hose actually gives glory to the Lord because it is being used the
believer.
MacArthur writes “Paul closed the passage by reminding
his readers that the ability to glorify Jesus Christ comes only through “the
grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Like salvation
itself, everything in the Christian life comes by “grace”—God’s
unmerited favor (cf. Gal. 3:3). It is
grammatically possible to translate this final phrase ‘our God and Lord Jesus
Christ,’ which would indicate Paul had only the Second Person of the Trinity in
view. Both translations affirm Christ’s
deity; He is either called God or put on an equal footing with the
Father.”
The godly Puritan John Owen noted, ‘He who prays as he
ought will endeavor to live as he prays.”
Don’t ever let anyone tell you that prayer is easy, for prayer is hard
work. I once heard a story to illustrate
that I suppose that I have used before, but worth using again. I don’t remember whether this story is about
Charles or John Wesley, but one of them was riding his horse around England
preaching at different cities and towns when he came upon a man and began to
discuss prayer with him. Wesley told the
man that if he could pray for five minutes straight without stopping that he would
give him his horse. A little way through
the prayer the man stopped and asked Wesley “does that include the saddle
too?” Yes prayer is hard work and I am
fining that out in my life at this time of my life.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: It is very
difficult to live as you pray, and pray as you live as the Puritan said, but by
God’s grace I will do better.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Lord to continue to work in my life
so that I will have a better prayer life.
Memory verses for the
week: Colossians 3:5-10.
5Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as
dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to
idolatry. 6 For it is because of these
things that the wrath of God has come upon the sons of disobedience; 7 and in
them you once walked, when you were living in them.
8 But now you also, put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive
speech from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to
one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, 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-
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Greeks, Barbarians, wise,
unwise” (Romans 1:14).
Today’s Bible question: “Where did his parents find Jesus in
Jerusalem?”
Answer in our next SD.
I am on vacation where
there is no internet service, so there may be more than one SD put on the blog
at a time as it depends on when I get to a place where I can get online.
10/9/2014 7:11 PM
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