...it's time to pray for faithfulness...

“9 How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy that we feel before our God because of you? 10 Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you face to face and restore whatever is lacking in your faith.

11 Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you. 12 And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we abound in love for you. 13 And may he so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints” 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13.

Dear friends, the last two verses in chapter 3 warm my heart because they are words of prayer from the Apostle Paul, words that wish us the best we could ever wish for one another: “12 And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we abound in love for you. 13 And may he so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints” 1 Thess. 3:12-13. How different our life and nation would be if we wished this for one another: that the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all. We live surrounded by violence and hatred, within our country and throughout the world. Every night my wife, Linda, and I pray for peace throughout the world. Completely senseless deaths are occurring because we are running on empty — empty of God’s love for others. We cannot live together in peace. Instead, we use our military to replace our essential love for one another. 

So, Paul prays that we “may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints” verse 13. Paul’s “solution” to our inability or unwillingness to live in love and peace is that we all work on building and strengthening our relationship with our God and Father. The key to living together in love and peace is, as Paul reminds us, completely rooted in our relationship with God. Take time, then, to read some Scriptures today and then sit quietly in the presence of God, asking Him for His grace to be blameless before Him.

Lord Jesus Christ, son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.