Sunday, January 30, 2011

The Pursuit of God's Will is Held Together by Prayer

The fulfillment of God's Will in the lives of Thessalonian believers is a constant burden for Paul in his prayers. He has three requests with regard to this church:
1. That God may count you worthy of His calling
2. That God may fulfill every good resolve of yours (see later discussion) by His power
3. That God may glorify the name of Christ in the believers.
Our discussion of God's will centers on the second request, but notice how the spiritual lives of the Thessalonians are held together by the corporate prayer of the apostle Paul, with Silas- Paul's traveling and ministry companion, and the young disciple, Timothy. The desire of God to get the Thessalonian believers safely home and to display the wonder of His Son, is seconded in prayer by Paul and others in the faith.
Paul's prayer is both corporate and persistent. It was a comfort and an encouragement for the Thessalonian believers to know that Paul constantly wrestled in prayer for their maturity, their sanctification, their readiness to see the revelation of Christ.
The will of God for the believer, then, is birthed and nurtured in the persistent, corporate prayer of a caring body of believers. Woe to the one who goes it alone.

No comments: