A Prayer for Our Church

May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.
—2 Thessalonians 3:5

If I were to pray just one prayer for our church, it would be the words of this verse. In my opinion, it covers everything we need: hearts that are (1) convinced of the love of God, and (2) gripped by the steadfastness of Christ.

The love of God — If there’s a more universal struggle among believers than doubting God’s love, I don’t know what it is. Seems that we all wonder about it sometimes; not so much about whether God loves others, but about whether He loves us (me). Because we are so well acquainted with our own gaps, we wonder how He could possibly want us. We’re right in thinking that we don’t deserve His love, but the truth is, we have received it. His love-backed, love-packed mercy has overridden our sinfulness. Permanently.

It does far more good to direct our hearts to God’s love than to our shortcomings.

The steadfastness of Christ — Having wrapped himself in humanity, Christ endured the pains and strains of life on the ground. We can never say to Him, But you don’t know how hard life is. You don’t know how much it hurts. You don't know…

Yes, He does know. He endured it … all of it. And because He endured, we have eternal salvation and a Savior who walks with us day in and day out through the hard issues of life. These are not just ours to endure, but Christ’s as well. He sympathizes with our weaknesses (Hebrews 4:15). We are not alone in this messy, challenging, sometimes overwhelming life.

So, I pray for my brothers and sisters in Christ. I pray that the Lord will direct our hearts to the love of God and the steadfastness of Christ—today and every day.