A Great Massage

Read: 2 Thessalonians 3
“Pray that the Lord’s message will spread rapidly and be honored wherever it goes, just as when it came to you. “ 2 Thessalonians 3:1

Examine:
Paul’s heart and the focus of his life was to see the Lord’s message spread rapidly and be honored everywhere. Salvation was not something he took lightly nor was it something he viewed as being private. God had granted him something amazing and also charged him with sharing it.

Apply:
God has been working with me deeply on two fronts; prayer and evangelism. I do not like the word evangelism. It is a word that has be ravaged by religious doctrine and teaching. I feel like I just need to start over and create my own definition of this word. Jesus said it best when He commanded us to allow His power to come upon us and then go be His witnesses to the world. That is what I am called to do. That is what all believers are called to do. I should focus my heart everyday on being overwhelmed by the power of God and then set my agenda towards being His witness.

God has been really working on my heart about my prayer and I have tried to focus on improving it, but this has proven to be a massive failure. Prayer normally ends up feeling like I am giving God an update on my life and informing Him of my preferred outcome for the situations I determine to be most important. There is a time and a place for making my requests known but that cannot be the sole focus of my prayers. Paul’s prayer and the prayers of Jesus were focused on discovering the will of the Father and then seeing His will rapidly become a reality on earth. That should always be the basis of my prayers.

Pray:
The coolest thing in the world to me about You is the more honest I am with You the more peace I find in my heart. It is like with every confession of weakness I find in You a deep well of strength and power. This morning I sense You stripping away at two weak spots in my life. As I feel this taking place the only way I know to describe it is it feels like getting a great massage. The tenderness of Your touch as You gently work out the tense spots of my faith relaxes me greatly and reminds me that You are not difficult to deal with when I deal with You in honesty. I have no request of You this morning. I just want to thank you so very much. It is good to be in Your presence. My eyes are set on You and my ears are tuned in to You. I trust You to lead my heart into a full understanding and expression Your love and the patient endurance that comes from Christ.