“May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance.” – 2 Thessalonians 3:5
As Paul cared for all people, when he wrote his letter to the Thessalonians, he mentioned a very loving prayer for them. He said that may our Lord direct our hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance– thus, our verse today. He cared for the people and he wanted them also to know that their hearts can also go away from God. We are all sinful people and all we do is to walk away from God, even if He calls us to go near Him.
Many passages in the Bible that state that our hearts are very treacherous and it really tends to walk away from God. We tend to always choose to walk away from God, but everything we do is all sinful because we are naturally sinful and bound to die. Yet, Paul still prayed for the people in Thessalonians, and even for us, that may our Lord direct our hearts to God’s love and Christ’s perseverance. Now, as our hearts are directed to God’s love, we will then realize that understanding God’s love while sinning can now way be done together. We cannot continue sinning while appreciating the love of God. Our hearts cannot love God and at the same time love sinning.
So, for us to be fully in God’s love, we have to fully understand that we have to let Christ dwell in us. We must let God dwell inside our hearts and let Him rule our lives. After all, Paul’s prayer was for our hearts to be directed in God’s love. Now, for our hearts to be directed in God’s love, we must first be freed from the bondage of sin and death. So, for us to be freed from that, we need Christ as our Lord and Savior. Thus, which brings us to the fact that the bottom point is we need Christ. Through His death and resurrection, He has saved us from our sins. As we are saved by grace through faith, our salvation will then manifest that will make us obey God above all else.
Through this, our hearts will be in line with God, so indeed, may the Lord direct our hearts towards God’s love. Also, for us to be directed and to be kept directed in His love, we must see and focus on the perseverance of Christ and imitate Him. Let us let Christ dwell in us and persevere to fight the good fight of faith and let our hearts be anchored in God’s love and let our perseverance be inspired by the perseverance of Christ.
