I am
convinced that the greatest gift I have received over the course of my walk
with Jesus (next to His grace and salvation, my blessed wife, and many faithful
friends) is the prayers of people for me.
I am an undeserving recipient of this precious and powerful gift. I can think back to my early Christian days
to Sister Marcela Burgess. She was the 70 year old-plus sister in the
church who took me in as a young convert and gave me a place to live. Sister Burgess graced me with her prayers
from then to the time Mona and I went to Tucson to pioneer, right up until she
went home to be with her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Another is my mother-in-law, Toni Pena. Her salvation is such a miraculous testimony
to God’s grace and power that transformed her almost 38 years ago. Besides the fact that she gives me favor with
her daughter (“You listen to my hijo,
Mona”), she has blessed me with a constant stream of prayer for God’s help
over all these years. Thank you, mom
Toni. Then there are the countless
people who come up to me and say to me “Pastor,
we are praying for you.” I never
take that lightly that someone would actually remember me before the throne of God’s
grace. In fact, I need it and am
unashamed to solicit it!
So,
when I was thinking about Thanksgiving 2010...the best I could come up with is “back at you!” or my prayer for
you. This prayer is not “original” with
me, but it is a “Bible prayer” which
means it is not only inspired (praying directly in the middle of the will of
God), but also powerful and effective.
It was one of Paul’s prayers for the believers in Thessalonica. I’ll give it to you and then, there are 4
particular aspects of this prayer that I would wish for you all.
“How can we thank
God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God
because of you? Night and day we pray
most earnestly that we may see you again and supply what is lacking in your
faith. Now may our God and Father
himself and our Lord Jesus clear the way for us to come to you. May the Lord make your love increase and
overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. May he strengthen your hearts so that you
will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord
Jesus comes with all his holy ones.”
(1Thess.3:9-13)NIV
#1,
EXTRA THANKSGIVING, PLEASE!
Just
like people would ask for extra mashed potatoes or gravy (even dessert at least
once a year) Paul’s prayers are richly flavored with thanksgiving. “How
can we thank God enough for you.”
This was the consistent pattern throughout the New Testament: prayer
that begins with praise and worship and ends with praise and thanksgiving. Paul was always doing this. This was not the exception but the rule! He began his letter (1:2,3) “We give thanks to God always for all of
you, constantly mentioning you in our
prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of
love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” Even when he wrote to and prayed for the
Corinthians, which many have labeled as “the
problem church” (I’ve got breaking news for you: they all are!) he began, “I give thanks to my God always for you
because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every
way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge.” (1Cor.1:4,5)
These are not the words of a flatterer or a manipulator but someone who was
genuinely grateful to God for the contribution and faithfulness of others. He’s encouraging them by telling them when he
prays for them he thanks God for the grace evidenced in their lives. It really is striking how prominent a part this
plays in all the New Testament epistles: prayer and thanksgiving go together!
“Father, I am
extremely grateful for the faithful saints of God here at ‘The Door.’ I thank you for all that You have done in
their lives and continue to do. They
have truly been enriched by You in every way, and that has spilled over on to
my life as well!”
#2,
STRENGTH THAT YOU NEED!
This
was at the forefront of Paul’s concern and their need. Earlier he told them why he had dispatched
Timothy to go and minister to them (3:2,3) “We
sent Timothy, who is our brother and God's fellow worker in spreading the
gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you in your faith, so that no one
would be unsettled by these trials.”
He prayed in vs.10, “Night and day
we pray most earnestly that we may see you again and supply what is lacking in
your faith.” This deficiency was not
the result of disobedience but ignorance.
Paul had only been with them a short time when they came to salvation
through faith in Jesus Christ, but persecution forced him to leave
prematurely. He was deeply concerned to
see them strengthened. Like the song
lyrics, “You are my strength, strength
like no other, strength like no other, reaches to me.” I believe in the days we are living in, every
season of life calls for a corresponding measure of God’s strength in our
lives.
“God, I thank you
that your promise to us is ‘As your days are so shall your strength be.’ You’ve promised strength that would
correspond exactly to whatever it is we are facing. Be the strength of our lives and let it be
evident to all that this is supernatural: that we ‘might be strengthened with
might by the Spirit in our inner man.’”
#3,
LET LOVE OVERFLOW!
Love
is the only spiritual muscle that
motivates us to do the right things, in the right ways, for the right reasons,
and at the right times! This is why the
Bible says that love operating in our lives is “the fulfilling of the law.”
Love motivates us to live outside
of ourselves and our own small world, to join with others in something
bigger than ourselves! It is the “glue”
that binds together the different joints, ligaments, bones, muscles in the Body
to make it effective. Paul’s exact
prayer is that this love would “increase and abound” to the point it overflows
to both those within the church, and those outside the church! The Apostle John reminded us that this is the
supernatural evidence that we have been born again: that we love one another. Jesus reminded us that this would be a
specific last days target and assault, “Because
iniquity will abound, the love of
many will grow cold.” (Mt.24:10) This is why we can never take love for
granted like some static quality.
“Lord Jesus, we
are living in a ‘dog-eat-dog’ kind of world where ‘looking out for #1' is not
just a popular saying, it is the normal way of living. The reality is the world can be a cold,
brutal, self-serving place. If you add
to this our own lack and deficiencies in the love department, that we can let
people down and they can do the same, it’s not hard to see the buildup of deep
and personal hurts that hinder our walk with God. Don’t just ‘heal our land’ but also ‘heal our
hearts.’ Help us to fan our love into a
flame and keep it burning so that we don’t take You or others for granted. Help us never to leave our first love.”
#4,
ALWAYS STAY IN STYLE!
I’ve
got to tell you, if your goal in life is to keep up on all the latest fads,
with the next “big thing” so that you will always be fashionable and
trendy...you’re going to wear yourself out!
I will tell you, though, what is always in style (at least with God) and
that is holiness. If the
Scripture says, “without holiness no man
shall see the Lord” it is telling us that holiness will always be “in
style” with the One who matters most! So
Paul prays, “so that He may establish
your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints.”
There is no greater incentive to holiness than the Lord’s return...the 2nd
coming of Jesus Christ!
“God, finally,
help us to live and love and labor with eternity
in mind. If You are most glorified when
we are most satisfied in You, then fashion in us Your ‘family likeness.’ Because you are holy, make us holy. Let us learn and love to walk in the ‘beauty
of holiness’ all the days of our lives.”
IN JESUS’S NAME, AMEN.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
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