2 Thessalonians 3:1-5 ESV
“Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you, and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. For not all have faith. But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one. And we have confidence in the Lord about you, that you are doing and will do the things that we command. May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.”
We who are sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ out in the
public on a consistent basis need prayer. We need prayer for our own protection
from the evil forces which come against us, and we need prayer to be delivered
from wicked and evil men (and women) whose goal it is to obliterate the truth
of the gospel and to deceive the masses into believing a lie, instead. For not
everyone who professes faith in Jesus Christ has true God-given faith. There are
many wolves in sheep’s clothing among us.
And they are not only out to destroy the gospel that Jesus
and his New Testament apostles taught, but they are also against those of us
who are teaching/sharing the full gospel message of our salvation. And so they
are on a campaign, not only to convince the masses to believe in a false
gospel, but they are out on a campaign to convince them to reject the true
gospel as though it is the lie, and to falsely accuse the true servants of the
Lord of teaching legalism and works salvation and of being judgmental.
And so many people professing faith in Jesus Christ have
been brainwashed that when they hear certain words or phrases that they are to
close their ears and to not listen, or that they are to come back with an
immediate rebuttal which they have been trained to believe and to say. And for
the most part, their responses are all pretty much the same, although they may
be expressed in different ways. And usually it is to make accusations of us of
teaching works salvation, judgmentalism, and legalism.
And this is not unlike what is happening in the news and in
the political world. For many are being trained that when they hear certain
words or phrases that they are to immediately respond with “conspiracy theory,”
and thus to close their minds and ears to even the slightest possibility that
what is being expressed has any semblance of truth to it. And I believe Satan
is working in both this arena and in the church for the same purpose, to
convince people that the lies are the truth and that the truth is a lie or else
to confuse them so much that they won’t know the truth from the lie.
And so we also need prayer that the Word of God may speed
ahead and be honored, for it is largely being dishonored, even by many
people who profess to believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. For the lies
are spreading like wildfire, and not too many people, it would appear, at least
here in America, are taking that too seriously. But many are just accepting the
lies because they sound good and they are cleverly blended in with the truth,
and so they appear to be truth. And I think it is just because it is easier for
people to believe what sounds good than it is to challenge it.
And all of us who are walking in faithful obedience to our
Lord, in practice, and who are living holy lives, and who are not engaged in
deliberate habitual sin, we need each other’s prayers because we are in the
minority, and so we are not largely accepted by the worldly Christians, but we
are often considered odd, which is actually what we are supposed to be. For we
are called to be holy, and to be holy is to be separate (unlike, different)
from the world because we are being conformed to the likeness of Christ.
So, the lie that is largely being spread in evangelical
Christianity here in America is that we can make a one-time profession of faith
in Jesus Christ and that now all our sins are forgiven (past, present, and
future), and that heaven is guaranteed us when we die, regardless of how we
live. But the truth is that we must die with Christ to sin, not just once, but
daily, and that we must walk with him in obedience and in righteousness, and
not in sin, in order for us to be in true relationship with our Lord and to
have the hope of eternal life with God and heaven as our eternal destiny.
I
Pray for Them
An
Original Work / June 4, 2013
Based
off John 17
“Glorify Your Son, that Your Son
May glorify our God in heav’n.
Father, You granted Him all power
And all authority over men,
That He might give eternal life
To all those whom now
You have given Him.”
“This now then is eternal life:
That they may know You,
Father, and Your Son;
That they may know the only true God,
And Jesus Christ whom the Father sent.
I have brought You the glory by
Finishing the work that You’ve given Me.”
“I have shown You to those whom
You gave to Me out of the world;
They were Yours. You gave them to Me
And they have obeyed Your words
And they accepted them. They knew
That I came from You, and they believed
With certainty, I was sent.”
“Holy Father, I pray for them by the
Power of Your name: Protect them,
So that they may be one as we are,
For they are still living in this world.
I have given them Your word;
Because of Your word, the world
Has hated them.”
“I pray they may have the full measure of
My joy now living within them.
Father, I pray You sanctify them
By Your word; truly Your word is truth.
As You sent Me into the world,
I send them to tell the world to repent.”
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