SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/4/2014
10:29 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Introduction to 2 Thess. 1:11-12
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 2 Thess.
1:11-12
Message of the
verses: “11 To this end also we pray
for you always, that our God will count you worthy of your calling, and fulfill
every desire for goodness and the work of faith with power, 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.”
These are the last two verses in 2 Thessalonians chapter
one and in them we see that Paul is writing to them about prayer again. Dr. Warren Wiersbe entitles this section in
his commentary on 2 Thessalonians “The Encouragement of Prayer,” and in John
MacArthur’s commentary he has a whole chapter that deals with these two chapters
and he entitles this chapter “Praying for the Right Things.” Dr. Wiersbe writes “Paul prayed for his
converts (1 Thess. 1:2; 3:10). His ‘wherefore’
in 2 Thessalonians 1:11 means, ‘And because of all I have just said’—the return
of Christ to be glorified in the saints, and to judge the lost. The future prospect of glory motivated the
apostle to pray for the saints. We must never neglect a present
responsibility because of a future hope.
On the contrary, the future hope must encourage us to be faithful today.” Remember that in Dr. Wiersbe’s commentaries
he usually uses the KJV of the Bible unless he tells his readers he is using
another version of the Bible. I use the
NASB95 unless I notify that I am using another version. The KJV for verse eleven reads as follows “11
Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of
this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work
of faith with power.”
I have mentioned that I try to listen to John MacArthur’s
sermons on the specific sections that I am studying in order to get better
insight on what the verses have to say.
His sermon on this section was interesting to me in that he first
mentions “Cargo Cults of the South Pacific.”
What this is all about is that during WWII when the US Navy was moving
towards Japan they began to conquer islands where they could set up bases to
land their planes, and on these islands there were natives who knew little if
anything about airplanes. These natives
would see the planes come in with their cargo and some of it, like cigarette
lighters, radios and power tools, along with jeeps, and modern weapons and also
things like refrigerators. Some things
were given to the natives and when the Navy was done I suppose that they just
left the things they did not need any more on the island. When this happened the natives found that
their lives were different because of what they called the “cargo gods.” These natives actually built shrines to the
cargo gods, and they looked in vain for the return of these cargo gods. MacArthur writes “The cargo cults still
thrive to this day, the best know one being the John Frum (possibly John ‘Frum’
America) cult headquartered on the island of Tanna in Vanuatu (formerly the New
Hebrides). Followers of the cargo cults
are so passionately consumed with materialism that missionaries find it
difficult to evangelize them; they are interested in cargo, not the gospel.”
I will get to what this has to do with our verses from 2
Thessalonians in a moment. However these
cargo cults are something that is going on in our country in what is called the
Health and wealth gospel, saying that by prayer we can get what we want from
God to make us healthy and wealthy. It
seems to me that the only ones getting wealthy are the ones spreading this
false theology about God. John MacArthur
calls the “The Word Faith Movement.” He
writes “The god of the World Faith movement is little more than a utilitarian
genie who exists to grant the materialistic wishes of his followers.” He then says that Christians can pray for
wrong things today even though they are not following a cargo cult of the world
faith movement. In one of the messages I
heard from MacArthur he said something that I remember, and that is when Paul
was in prison and wrote to different churches and also Pastors we do not see
him praying about what was going on with him physically. I am not saying that we are not to pray for
physical needs, but Paul cared more about the spiritual needs of those he was
writing to and also cared that they would continue to preach the gospel to the
lost. Now we are better understanding
the direction that this introduction is taking as far as being in line with
these two verses in 2 Thessalonians.
John MacArthur writes “The essence of prayer is not
demanding things from God but listening to discern His will. The deeper believers’ prayer lives become,
the more they line up with God’s will as revealed in Scripture, the less
inclined they are to ask for trivial things.
As they learn to desire what He desires, love what He loves, and hate
what He hates, they pray, ‘Our Father who is in heaven, hollowed be Your
name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in
heaven’ (Matt. 6:9-10).”
As we prepare to look at these two verses I think that it
is important to quote another paragraph from MacArthur’s commentary which
speaks of what the heart of Paul is, and then hopefully our hearts will be
moved to have a better prayer life. MacArthur
says that these two verses do not record one of the many prayers that we find
in the writings of Pau, but rather it reveals that for Paul prayer was not a ritual
or a routine, but his prayer life was a way of life. He then writes “The apostle’s spiritual life
could be likened to a volcano. Beneath
the thin outer crust of his life was a burning, passionate heart for God. Frequently, the volcanic heat of his heart
would cause prayer to burst through the veneer of routine, surface activities. This passage describes those eruptions; these
tow verses reveal the passionate heart of a man on fire for God.
“Three important features emerge from Paul’s brief prayer
report: the resource of prayer, the
requests Paul made for the Thessalonians, and the reason or goal of his prayers
for them.”
Now we must remember, as Dr. Wiersbe brought up that in
verses 5-10 of this chapter that Paul just went over things about the second
coming of Christ, and similar to the way both John and Peter did after they
went over this most important topic Paul writes about what they should do in
light of the second coming of Christ.
Peter wrote that in light of what was going to happen to our earth, that
is it would be burned up with fire, what kind of people should we be?
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: That is a good
question, “What kind of a person should I be in light of the coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ?” The answer or at least a
part of the answer is to have a better prayer life.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Work on having a better prayer life, praying
for the things that God would want me to pray for.
Memory verses for the
week: Colossians 3:1-9.
1 Therefore if you have
been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is,
seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set
your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. 3 For you have died and your life is hidden
with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who
is your life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in
glory.
5
Therefore 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 aside:
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,
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Jesus” (Luke 19:5).
Today’s Bible
question: “Where was Athaliah slain?” (This is a very hard question.)
Answer in our next SD.
10/4/2014 11:54 AM
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