Have you ever wondered what was on your pastor’s heart? Like what got him excited in the morning? What keeps him up at night? What breaks his heart or brings a smile to his face?
There are three short verses in a small letter in the Bible that really drive at what’s on a pastor’s heart. Here’s the set of verses – Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. There are a few things here that really stand out.
May God our Father and Jesus our Lord direct our way to you.
The first part of this prayer has two really important pieces almost hidden in plain site. You may have noticed that I re-ordered the wording of this line. Most bibles will read “our God and Father and our Lord Jesus” but I think this misses a really cool thing that’s happening here.
Paul wrote this in a specific way to highlight that God is Father and Son simultaneously and yet there aren’t two of them but one God. He shows how God is Father and Sovereign Lord all at the same time. There are two subject (Father and Lord) but the verbs in Greek are singular. So many but one, one but many all at the same time.
Now the prayer is that we would come together. This is a theme everywhere in the Bible – the coming together of the people of God for the worship of God. The prayer of this pastor’s heart is that they would be enabled to continue to meet together.
May the Lord make you increase and abound in love
All too often we get tunnel visioned on what we don’t like and the things with which we don’t agree. We get vocal about our opposition to the newest bill that was passed or the lifestyle choices of those who live differently than we live. Here the prayer turns to enhancing and nurturing what we’re for instead of what we’re against.
The two words used here – increase and abound – are kind of two sides of the same coin. It’s like he’s praying that love would abound abundantly in us. A bit repetitive I know! But the point is that this concept is vital to who we are as Christians. Yet it’s so easy to leave this one by the wayside when we’re upset or don’t get our way.
Establish your hearts blameless in holiness…at the coming of Jesus.
There is a ton packed in this little section but we’ll focus on just one part of it. This is all about God’s acting for us. Have you noticed that every single verb here has the same subject. The same actor. The same person making it happen. In each of these God is the actor. Jesus is the one who’s bringing these things to be.
He’s the one who will make us holy and blameless. This is such a great part of the prayer. We don’t make ourselves good enough or holy or blameless. No matter how hard we try, it just doesn’t work. But God in His Son Jesus, has already made us blameless. Now the prayer is that we are kept in that blameless and holy way of life until Jesus returns.
The prayer of the pastor’s heart is one of togetherness, love for one another and submission to who Jesus is. We pray other things too but this is the heart and soul of all we pray for the people God entrusted to us. And this is my prayer for you even if I don’t know you personally just yet.