Room to Grow - Constant Prayer
With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of His calling, and that by His power He may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith (2 Thessalonians 1:11).
Our Father in heaven, Your great mercy and love are...from of old (Psalm 25:6). You offer us grace when we have nothing to recommend us to You. Our natural selves are characterized as foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures... [living] in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another (Titus 3:3).
Yet You save us through the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8), not because of righteous things we have done, but because of Your mercy (Titus 3:5). And You have a plan for our lives. The apostle Paul explained to Timothy, [God] has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of His own purpose and grace (2 Timothy 1:9).
You have proven that Your purpose is perfect, Your plan is good. You desire to conform us to the image of Your Son (Romans 8:29). You have qualified us to share in the inheritance of Your holy people in the kingdom of light (Colossians 1:12). Yet, we lose sight of all this in our preoccupation with the affairs of this world.
Father, this world is transient—both its glories and its troubles will end. But You know our fearful hearts and our tendency to focus on the cares and alarms around us. In the mounting pressures of life and the chaos and confusion that surround us, help us not to lose focus. Help us not to become so bogged down in the worries, the anxieties, and the vexations of the temporary that we lose sight of the eternal—that we lose sight of Your power.
The apostle Paul urges us to look forward to the day [Christ] comes to be glorified in His holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed (2 Thessalonians 1:10). With this in mind, he emphasizes the importance of embracing Your transforming work in our lives. He emphasizes the importance of living a life worthy of Your calling (Ephesians 4:1). He emphasizes the importance of devoting ourselves to doing what is good (Titus 3:8).
We struggle so much Lord, and our hearts fail so often, because we rely on our own power. We try to carry burdens that were not meant for human shoulders. We wrestle with tasks that require supernatural strength. And we give up in frustration and defeat when our desires do not come to fruition—when our deeds fall short.
Oh Lord, help us to follow the apostle Paul's example of constant prayer. Help us to pray for each other—for Your power to carry out the mission You have given us in this life. Keep us from being hemmed in by the cares and stresses of the world, so that we can have room to grow and flourish in Your kingdom work—so that by Your power You bring to fruition our every desire for goodness and our every deed prompted by faith.
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