SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/5/2014
7:51 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Introduction to 2 Thessalonians chapter Three
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 2
Thessalonians 3:1-5
Message of the
verses: “1 Finally, brethren, pray for us that the word of the Lord
will spread rapidly and be glorified, just as it did also with you; 2 and that we will be rescued from perverse and evil
men; for not all have faith. 3 But the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen
and protect you from the evil one. 4 We have confidence in the Lord concerning
you, that you are doing and will continue to do what we command. 5 May the Lord
direct your hearts into the love of God and into the steadfastness of Christ.”
It seems the more that I study the letters that Paul
wrote that are included in the Word of God the more I see some similarities in
them. For instance many of his letters
he begins with prayer for the saints that he is writing to and also in the beginning
of his letters he teaches doctorial truths, and then near the end of his
letters he asks the saints to pray for him and then gives the practical
application to the doctorial truths that he has taught in the first part of the
letter. Many times we see the word “finally”
in his letters towards the end of his letter and we have to understand that
this word can have and does have several meanings in the Greek. John MacArthur writes “Finally (loipos) can have the sense of finality,
but it literally means ‘for the rest,’ or ‘besides that’ (e. g., 1 Cor.
1:16). Paul used the same term in
Philippians 3:1 and 1 Thessalonians 4:1, and in neither instances was he ready
to conclude his epistle; he was simply making a transition (‘beside that…this’). In several uses of the word, it marks the transition
from the letter’s doctrinal content to its practical content, as it does
here. By it Paul marked his subject
change from eschatology to matters of practical sanctification.” So with this in mind we understand that there
was a change in direction in this letter.
We are again talking about prayer as we did in the first
letter that Paul wrote to the Thessalonians.
Now it is good for us to remember that the church at Thessalonica was a
very young church in the Lord, and that Paul and his co-workers in the Lord
were only there for a very short while before they were run out of town due to
persecution. Paul wrote the first letter
shortly after he left Thessalonica to find out how this new church was doing,
and found out that they were doing well despite being under persecution. Between the two letters the church was under
great persecution and a false teacher through a letter that was supposed to
have been sent from Paul told them that they were in the Day of the Lord. Paul refuted this in telling them that they
could not be in the Day of the Lord because the antichrist was not on the scene,
and then writes in the second chapter much about this man of sin which is
eschatological teaching. He is now beginning
his practical teaching in this last chapter of 2 Thessalonians and is repeating
some of the things about prayer that are found in the first letter. Paul desires for the Thessalonian believers
to pray for him, and he wants them to do this even though they are very young
in the Lord. I have heard men teach that
when a person is a young believer and begins their prayer life that many times
the Lord will answer their prayers in order to give them confidence to continue
to pray. I suppose that when a person
has been a believer that there are times when their prayer life is up and down,
and I can speak from experience about this as I am having a difficult time in
my prayer life at this time.
As I look at the introductory material from John
MacArthur’s commentary on this chapter of 2 Thessalonians he writes that in
these first five verses what we will be looking at. “This text provides additional insight,
directly from Paul’s heart regarding what any dedicated, devoted pastor desires
from his people. The apostle set forth
four fundamental and obvious desires he had of the Thessalonians: that they would pray for him, that they would
trust the Lord, that they would obey his divinely revealed teaching, and that
they would grow spiritually.” These are
wonderful prayer requests that Paul has laid out and we will begin looking at
the first one “Pastors Desire Their People’s Prayers” in our next SD (Lord
willing).
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: Prayer is one of
the most important things that I, as a believer can do. Prayer is a privilege in that God has allowed
me to participate in the things that He is doing on earth. I surely need to have a better prayer life,
to desire to have a better prayer life and then have one so that I can be doing
more work for the Lord. As I grow in the
Lord and continue to study from His Word I can understand more about what I am
to pray about, that is to align God’s will with mine and then pray about
it. One of the things that is helpful in
my prayer life is seeing the things that Paul has written about in the letters
of his that I have been studying.
Another things is by reading books that teach about the attributes of
the Lord.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Have a better prayer life.
Memory verses for the
week: Colossians 3:10-11.
10 and have put on the new
self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One
who created him—11 a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and
Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian and Scythian, slave and freeman,
but Christ is all, and in all.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Four.”
Today’s Bible
question: “Why did Abraham purchase the
cave of Machpelah?”
Answer in our next SD.
11/5/2014 8:26 AM
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