"To this end we always pray for you, asking that our God will make you worthy of his call and will fulfill by his power every good resolve and work of faith, 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 Thessalonians 1:11-12)
I know the author of 2 Thessalonians was writing to an entire church community. There are many words of encouragement, admonition and challenge. But these two verses (2 Thess.1:11-12) could easily be a prayer for all of us int he full-time ordained ministry.
Some of the parts that struck me this morning:
- "...we always pray for you..." The gift (and privilege) of regular prayer. Wow! (Lord, help me be more consistent here).
- "...that God will make you worthy of his call..." We humans screw up all the time and clergy are no exception. Actually we often draw more attention when we sin, and rightly so, as we re-present God and the church. To borrow a phrase from Wayne's World, "We're not worthy!!!" And yet, we're called to strive for excellence in all we do (especially with morality). SO this is a wonderful plea for all of us - to be made worthy of God's call on our lives... not by our own goodness, but by God's grace.
- "...will fulfill by his power every good resolve and work of faith..." Being persons in full-time ministry, we usually have a lot of projects going on. We need God's power & strength to accomplish it. The 'good resolves' and 'works of faith' will fall short if we try to d it all by ourselves. May God's power, instead, accomplish what needs to be done through us!
- "...so that the name of Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him..." Bottom line: Jesus gets the glory. Period. It's not about us, no matter how awesome we may be :)' Are we bringing glory to God through all we do?
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