Christ’s perseverance

May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance.      

                                                                                                   2 Thess. 3.5

Again I see great encouragement in these words. The Lord will direct our hearts – emotions, intellects and wills. He will lead us into God’s love, the all-embracing love that eliminates bitterness and hard feeling. God’s love causes well-being, good thoughts and right thinking to rise up in us. The Lord will also direct us into Christ’s perseverance. As I give this concept just the briefest consideration I begin to grasp something of the enormity and capacity of Christ’s perseverance. He did not give up. He conquered death itself through His perseverance. This same quality is available to me. I have His word that the Lord will lead me into it.

Even so, I don’t believe my part is to sit back, do nothing, and just wait for God to act. I pick up on the word ‘wait’, but I see it in an active and not a passive application. I believe I am to wait actively upon the Lord. How might I do this? I keep myself alert and vigilant to hear from Him and to see any opening He might offer to me. If I feel strongly to do anything, I give it to Him with specific indications of my intentions and I ask Him to change this if He so wishes.

Further, I expect Him to direct my heart into God’s love – into the very fullness of it, and to direct my mind, intellect, will and emotions into Christ’s perseverance. I also believe that my ‘body’ will follow my heart.

O, let me dwell in the house of the Lord forever!

Lord,

I come to You in full surrender. I offer my heart to You and ask You to fill it with Your love. Direct me in the fullness of Your love. Lead me into Christ’s perseverance. Strengthen me to never give up in my desires for You. You are everything to me. I rejoice in the relationship I have in You. And I ask for more. I crave for more. Let me never be satisfied.

I seek to know contentment in the way that Paul knew it (Phil. 4.12). Help me to learn this secret, Lord. But let me also press ever onward to seek further satisfaction in and of You. I will not rest until I know my heart to be fully in God’s love and Christ’s perseverance, and I ask for this in Jesus’ precious name.                                                                                  Amen.