Prayer 7

Read 2 Thess 1:1-12

2 Thessalonians 1:11–12 “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. We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

2 Things are secure:

Though our final transformation and our future.

But rather than this security leading to complacency, the Apostle Paul sees it as an incentive to pursue Christ-likeness now. In other words, the vision of the end moves him to pray these things and pursue these things now.

His prayer is linking the future to the present, the vision of what is to come moving him now.

This is very important to recognize - in light of the persecution and suffering they are enduring, there exists the potential that their prayers and what they are working towards would take on a different emphasis than what really matters. (We spoke about this last week - discerning what is best).

This is a case where our circumstances can dictate what is most important: getting out of the problems. They are important (we do not celebrate suffering, look for it, minimize the imperative to reduce suffering in the world where we can) but they cannot take the place of what is ultimate importance.

The prayer is not to escape the problems but to persevere in what really matters in the midst of them. (Paul does comfort them with a vision of the future appearing of Jesus).

Here is what really matters:

Worthy of his calling

For one, Paul regularly puts one’s relationship with God in terms of God’s call, not of one’s believing in Christ. For Paul our believing is always understood to be in response to God’s prior calling. Gifts we always refer to the Giver… This will help us avoid a legalistic sense of “what I did”

This does not imply accumulating merit in such a way to deserve God’s favor, no he calls us completely in grace, however, in that call, he is summoning us to live a life worthy of the calling.

In other words: our lifestyle matters very much. (But again, not to earn but to live out what he has done).

Wrestling team example.

They are calling me to perform at a varsity level. Again, I was already on the team, now wrestle like it.

I was not left alone, I had practice, coaches, etc. working to help me be a varsity wrestler that I already was.

You can see the correlation now: you are already in the family of God, you are already seated with Christ, you are already the righteousness of God in Christ, your future is already secured.

And just like I have coaches, we have The Holy Spirit and his grace working to change us to live life worthy of the call. He is teaching and changing us to live like we are seated in Christ. He is working in us changing us and showing us how the righteousness of God (that you are) acts like.

We can say that the Spirit of Grace is narrowing the gap between where you are now and where you will be - fully transformed into the image of Christ. Or rather it is better to say, who you are now and who you will become.

Paul’s prayer for them is that even in the midst of the persecutions and trials they are enduring keep growing!

His power brings to fruition every desire for goodness and deed prompted by faith.

The emphasis is in God’s power at work in their midst, they do not stand alone in their afflictions.

We may be tempted to ask, God where you are you? When facing trouble. This prayer shows us, he isn’t absent but in our midst… doing what?

Objective goodness is what drives the desire

Faith demands action. Faith doesn’t just move mountains, it moves us.

These desires and faith move us from selfishness to now caring for the poor. Moves us from living for self to serving others. It changes our marriages for the better, its foundational to proper parenting,

But notice that it isn’t just our good desires or deeds that make a difference, it is God who is behind them and bringing them to fruition. The results are in God’s hands.

This Scripture has completely negated any validity to the excuse, “I am unable”

If your good desire to serve and the promptings of your faith feel too big - good, it’s God who makes it happen.

And this is what living life worthy of the call looks like. Growing faith and increasing love.

So that Jesus glorified - in you.

That is, when by God’s power God’s people live a life worthy of his call, and when our purpose is goodness and our faith that leads to works, then Jesus himself is seen and honoured in us.

As always, grace and glory go together. Glory is the end; grace is the means to it. There can be no glory without grace.

This prayer is especially significant in its present context.

In the midst of the Thessalonian believers’ pain and suffering, Paul’s prayer for them focuses ultimately on Jesus being glorified. Yet God’s glory will be manifest as he, by grace, fulfills the good desires and faith deeds in his people.

God’s glory is intimately tied to Christ’s being glorified in and among his people

You matter! And we need to persevere stay focusd on what really matters.

What we need then is a vision of this calling: identity and purpose.

Remember, prayer is linking the future vision to now.

In other words, how do you see yourself? How do you see others?

How we see ourselves will be a powerful motivator in what we do.

Zechariah’s vision

We need a vision of our identity from God’s perspective. Prayer links that to the present.

Purpose is the most explicit here: Paul said, “We pray this so...” To Glorify Jesus.

Glory- notoriously difficult and is a struggle for the greatest christian minds to define. Because the glory of God is the (as Tim Keller correctly pronounces) the combined magnitude of all God’s attributes and qualities put together. His Glory is as great as His name. In other words,

He is not a tame God, He is beyond us “figuring out”

He is beyond our “comprehension”

He does not fit neatly into any simple theological box.

What we do know of him is only what he has graciously shared. His glory is his infinite beyondness otherness.

For our purposes to grasp and is true to the biblical idea, what we can translate this into is His Supreme Importance. In other words God matters more than anything or anyone else. If anything matters more than God you are robbing him of his glory.

Back to context Thessalonians context- Suffering and glory connected

Romans 8:17–18 “17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. 18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”

2 Corinthians 4:17 “17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.”

Could it be because, in the midst of suffering, when we continue (as Paul said in verse 3 and 4) grow in faith and increase in love, we displaying the Glory of God, that He matters more than life itself. He matters more than difficulties I am facing, He matters more than anything.

I think suffering and troubles provide an opportunity we don’t have elsewhere. Especially in the context of suffering, where it is so easy to be distracted, where what really matters does not matter as much anymore.

Mark 4, we remember the words of Jesus: “[they] hear the word and at once receive it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for “other things” come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. (This is the opposite of Paul’s prayer, why? Because they got distracted.) But the good ground, Luke 8:15 “15 But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.”

Think about it- you might be going through hell but you still have others on your mind.

Jesus, John 17:1 “1 After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.” , His suffering while loving and trusting glorified God more than anything.

John 12:27–28 “27 “Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name!” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.””

Paul is telling the Thessalonians, Look, in the midst of your troubles and persecution, I am praying that you will stay focused, continue growing in faith, increasing in love, walking worthy of the call, full of good desires and works of faith - this is all the work of God’s grace and you glorify God when you do.

Suffering well will glorify God to others. It shows the greatness of God and His power. All people experience the evil in the world, when we continue increasing in love and faith - it’s a testament to God’s power.

1 Peter 1:6–7 “6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”

Jesus lost all his glory so that we could be clothed in it. He was shut out so we could get access. He was bound, nailed, so that we could be free. He was cast out so we could approach.

And Jesus took away the only kind of suffering that can really destroy you: that is being cast away from God. He took that so that now all suffering that comes into your life will only make you great. A lump of coal under pressure becomes a diamond. And the suffering of a person in Christ only turns you into somebody gorgeous.

Jesus Christ suffered, not so that we would never suffer but so that when we suffer we would be like him. His suffering led to glory. And you can see it in Paul. Paul is happy to be in prison because “my sufferings are for your glory,” he says. He is like Jesus now. Because that is how Jesus did it. And if you know that that glory is coming, you can handle suffering, too.

Therefore, we can understand why we need a vision of our identity and purpose to live life worthy of His call.