Note: Recently, I was given the privilege of sharing a short devotion at our monthly prayer meeting. I shared the following thoughts as an encouragement to all who were there that evening.
“To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.” – 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12
As we journey through life, we often ask ourselves, “What am I supposed to do in my life? What is my purpose? What’s my calling?”
In seasons like these, we like some clarity, purpose, and a sense of direction, especially when we feel overwhelmed with life’s challenges or when we face big decisions.
For us as followers of Jesus, these questions we have can and must be anchored in God’s calling on our lives.
God’s calling is about so much more than what we “do”; it’s about who we are becoming through His transforming grace and power.
In his letter to the believers in Thessalonica, Paul wanted to encourage them during a time of persecution. Despite their struggles, Paul constantly prayed for them to grow in faith and to live in a way that honors God’s calling.
Besides seeing Paul’s heart for God’s people, this passage gives us a glimpse into how we can pray for one another and for ourselves to live lives that reflect God’s work in us.
So, what did Paul pray for his fellow Christians?
- Being Made Worthy of His Calling
In Paul’s prayer, he prays that God may “make you worthy of His calling.”
We see that he doesn’t say we’re supposed to make ourselves worthy by our own efforts or our own strength.
Instead, Paul reminds us that it is God who will make us worthy. It is His power at work within us, shaping us and refining us.
The calling of God is not about achieving a particular status or level of holiness by our strength, but rather allowing His Spirit to transform us into the likeness of Christ.
This calling is a reminder of God’s grace. He doesn’t call us because we are worthy.
Rather, He makes us worthy because He has called us.
Our worthiness isn’t something we have to earn on our own, but something we receive as we surrender our lives to Him.
God has called us to be His children and to live for Him. This calling should shape our actions, decisions, and life.
- God’s Power to Accomplish Good Desires and Faithful Deeds
Paul goes on to pray that by God’s power, our “every resolve for good” and “every work of faith” might be fulfilled. In the New Living Translation, it reads, “may he give you the power to accomplish all the good things your faith prompts you to do”
This is encouraging because it reminds us that God works his ways in us in both our will and our actions.
In his sermon on 3 Nov, I like how Pas Charles put it when he was helping us to understand what Jesus’ call for self-denial is about.
He said, “True self-denial is not about emptying ourselves from our desires. Rather, it is shaping our desires by Christ and His kingdom. Our desires are good but fallen.”
And I wrote the following down – “Self denial isn’t about not having our desires but having our desires shaped by the cross.”
In my growing up years in a dysfunctional family, I was made to feel unwanted, unloved, and that I was not worthy of any affection and love from my stepmother because I wasn’t her own. So my sister and I would frequently be ridiculed and scolded or beaten up.
This affected me so much that when I went to secondary school, I found my ‘purpose’ with the other runaway teenagers in the neighbourhood. I felt accepted and welcomed by these other kids.
I would play truant and skipped classes to play football with them. My friends and I would hang out in the neighbourhood, challenge other teams for money or bottled drinks for the fun of it.
Even though I had asked Jesus to come into my life, my life was still a mess. I was rebellious and would get myself into trouble with my teachers. Once I got into a fight with a fellow classmate and was on the verge of being expelled from school. My fate was seemingly sealed till my school’s discipline mistress stepped in.
For once, I was made to feel worthy and that there was some purpose in life for me. She said to me, “Stanley, I know you come from a broken family and there is a lot of pain and anger in you. But I also see that you have potential to be someone good in your life. Instead of expelling you and ask your parents to send you to the Boys’ Home, I will give you one last chance. I will make you a school prefect so that you stay out of trouble.” And that was the start of the change in my life.
When my discipline mistress made me a prefect, I became a different person. I had a new identity, a new purpose and I was given a sense of ‘worthiness’ even though I didn’t deserve to become a prefect.
With the changes slowly happening in my life, I started thinking about what I can do to become someone with purpose. I thought about being an army officer to lead soldiers, a professional soccer player to reach out to boys from broken families; and also aspired to be a radio DJ on the late night show to encourage people going through difficult times in their relationships. These were all the desires I had in my life. But sadly, all these desires didn’t come true for me.
Later on, through bible studies and mentoring from my older friends, I learned that God’s ways are higher than ours. And that I should always seek His purpose, His good and perfect will and His calling for me.
And as God continued to do His transforming work in my life, I would come to that realisation that Jesus dying on the cross give me a new identity and made me worthy. Just like how I was made a prefect not because I was a good student. I wasn’t worthy or good enough. But my discipline mistress chose to see the good in me and made me one so that I could feel that I was worthy.
Years later, I found out that my discipline mistress was a Christian through another ex-student of my secondary school whose life was also turned around by her acts of grace.
As my life went on, I was disappointed that God didn’t answer my heart’s desires. Yet, I still carried that deep desire to help people in their lives.
It was much later on when I answered His call to full time ministry that I begin to see that God actually did answer all my heart’s desires – not in the way I imagine them to be but in a much better way.
While I didn’t become an officer in the army, I became an officer in the Boys’ Brigade and got involved in the lives of young people. While I didn’t become a professional soccer player, God allowed me to serve him as a school chaplain to help reach out to students. This allowed me to play soccer almost everyday like a professional player. I would interact with the students over a game of soccer after school and share with them God’s story in my life.
And while I didn’t become a radio DJ with my own talk show, I was still able to do a ‘talk show’ each week. During school chapel or devotion, I would share God’s word to encourage students and would usually end my sharing by playing them a closing song on stage or over the air through the PA system.
I realised that my heart’s desire to do good things, specifically the desire to reach out to help others, can only come from God’s work in my heart. When I gave my desires to him, God works his good will and his good desires and bring it to fruition in my life.
When God places desires for good things within us, He also gives us the strength to act on those desires. It’s like planting seeds – God plants these desires and aspirations within us, and then He nurtures and grows them so that they bear fruit.
And the other important thing we can learn is this – We don’t need to rely solely on our own strength to do good, because as the passage tells us; God himself provides the power for us to accomplish His purposes – “to accomplish all the good things your faith prompts you to do.”
So, how can we live this out? Here are some thoughts.
- Pray to Align Our Desires with God’s Will, Not Our Own
Like Paul, we can pray daily for God to align our hearts with His. It’s helpful to ask, “What desires for goodness has God placed within me?” and then to surrender these to God, asking for His guidance on how to fulfil them.
Like how I shared in my recent Perspective, about how I struggled to be patient and loving to my wife after she damaged our car. I prayed and asked the Spirit for help to help me be patient and loving to my wife.
When our desires are aligned with God’s will, He gives us the strength to accomplish them. He would open the way and make smooth the paths ahead of us.
- Depend on God’s Strength, Not Our Own
Often, we face challenges that make us feel inadequate or unworthy. In these moments, we can remember that God’s strength is sufficient. Just as Paul prayed for the Thessalonians, we, too, can pray that God would empower and give us the courage us to accomplish what we cannot do on our own.
- Live for His Glory, Not Our Own
The ultimate purpose of our good deeds and desires is that Jesus’ name might be glorified. As we seek to live worthy of His calling, it’s important to remember that it’s not about making a name for ourselves or proving our worth – it’s about reflecting God’s love and character so that others may see His glory in us. Our lives are meant to point to Jesus, who graciously shares His glory with us.
In a music video on Youtube, John Piper said the following words as a lead in to the song My Worth is not in What I Own*.
“We are unworthy of Christ and we have great worth because of Christ. Christ died for us not because we are worthy but because we are unworthy and there is no other way for us to be made worthy.
We are unworthy of the cross. Because of the cross, we are worthy.
That is the paradox at the heart of the Christian faith: our worth is not in what we own, what we do, or how hard we try. It is found only in the death of Christ. The Worthy One, the Son of God, laid aside his glory to take our sin upon him. He was crucified for the unworthy, the undeserving. By his sacrifice, he crowns us with worth, showing that he loves us at the infinite cost of his own life.
We will never find true worth in what we have or who we are.
True, full, lasting satisfaction can only come through all that God is for us in Jesus Christ.” – John Piper
Friends, God considers us worthy for Him to send his son to die for us so that we can be made worthy to honour him and serve him with our lives.
I like to close with the words in the final verse of the song, My Worth Is Not in What I Own.
“Two wonders here that I confess
My worth and my unworthiness
My value fixed, my ransom paid
At the cross
Chorus:
I rejoice in my Redeemer
Greatest treasure, wellspring of my soul
I will trust in Him, no other
My soul is satisfied in Him alone”
May we all be encouraged by Paul’s prayer in 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12. As we continue with our lives, may we remember that God has called us to live for Him. He has empowered us to do good, and desires for our lives to glorify His Son.
Let us walk in confidence with Christ, knowing that His grace is sufficient and He is our source of strength.
“We are unworthy of the cross. Because of the cross, we are worthy.”
Let’s pray.
“Gracious God, thank You for calling us and for making us worthy through Your power. We ask that You would fill us with Your Spirit so that our desires align with Yours, and that You would give us the strength to follow through on these desires with faith and courage.
May our lives reflect Your glory and point others to Your love. Help us, Lord, to live lives that honor You, and may the name of our Lord Jesus be glorified in us and us in Him.
We pray this in His powerful name. Amen.
*My Worth Is Not in What I Own – https://youtu.be/ytJymjk9xk8?feature=shared
