In “The Direction to a New Destination,” Alex reflects on 2 Thessalonians 3:5. We have a new destination‒the love of God and the steadfastness of Christ‒which we must seek the Lord to direct us to.
May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.
There are verses and passages in the Bible that we occasionally come across that can just wow us with the simplicity of their power. I’m participating in a reading plan that my church is doing right now, and I’m repeatedly overwhelmed with the richness of Scripture. Especially considering that these “nuggets of power” are all over in the Word!
In my reading the other day, this verse from 2 Thessalonians struck me by the simplicity, beauty, and power of its exhortation.
It’s a benediction which Paul was writing to the Thessalonians to encourage them along in their faith in a time and a place where forgetting the mission was an all too easy reality. But in one sentence, Paul explains and exhorts the life of a Christian. Let’s look a little closer.
May the Lord… – The verb tense included in this phrase expresses a wish, a desire which Paul has for the Thessalonians. It also captures the contingent force behind the verb of the verse‒the Lord.
May the Lord direct your hearts… – The verb “direct” connotes that God empowers and guides His followers on a path which they do not know how to navigate themselves. He makes the way straight and proper instead of us taking unnecessary and inefficient routes to the intended destination.
Our “hearts” are inclined to walk a path that may not ever get us to the place we need to be. Both of the two last nouns of the verse, which are the destination of our journey, belong to God‒love and steadfastness.
When we are going to a place we’ve never been before, and in this case a state of being in our hearts we are foreign to, we ask for directions, right? We need to know how to get to the place and, for me especially, we want to know the most efficient route. We may know that the general direction is north and so we aren’t going to go east, west or south. But even if we head that general direction, we still may never get there or at least not without delay. This state of being and future destination of our hearts‒love and steadfastness‒is where God is and where our hearts have never been. We need God to take us there.
…to the love of God… – This could mean a number of different things but two defining realities were brought to my mind for this future destination of our hearts. The first being the knowledge of the love of God. The second being an embodiment of the mission of the gospel. Both of these concepts could be a blog post or two in and of themselves to explain what both of them mean and why they’re important, but for now a simplified version. The reality of God’s love for us, the destination which is foreign to our hearts, is the key which unlocks salvation and satisfaction for our lives both now and forever. We were estranged and exiled, “alienated from the life of God” (Ephesians 4:18), “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us” brought us back to Himself and made possible the way to eternal life in Christ (Ephesians 2:4, italics added). That is the gospel reality we all must accept to understand the world’s current state in order to accept salvation through Jesus Christ as our only mode of redemption.
This is also the gospel reality which we who believe have been tasked to make known to the world because that destination, again, is foreign to us. We aren’t there and don’t know how to get there until God takes us there. For us who believe, this understanding of what Paul is exhorting the Thessalonians in is what we must lock our motives onto. This is our mission and our purpose. This is our calling and our commission. No matter where we live, what job we have, what our family dynamic looks like, how we grew up, or a million other factors which makes up who each of us are, we all have this one purpose in common: to love our God and to love all people.
…and to the steadfastness of Christ. – But Paul doesn’t end there. Our reality as Christians is defined by the purpose of love, but there’s something else we need in order to fulfill that purpose here in this world. Again, Paul was writing to a people living in a time and a place where fulfilling the purpose was not easy. This would never happen but if Paul were to tell the church to give up and stop persevering, you don’t have to continue in the mission anymore and you should just go along with however the world lives, they might have been, to say the least, relieved!
We need God to direct our hearts to the steadfastness of Christ because not only is pursuing the mission of love an arduous task, but staying the course is harder still. It’s foreign in the same sense of the Israelites wailing in the desert, complaining and wondering why they left Egypt where at least they had enough food and an adequate place to live. It’s not our first choice for how we would have wanted our life to look because comfort and ease is our instinct. It’s the current destination of our hearts. We need his steadfastness, the same steadfastness that eventually left glory, emptied of his majesty, to dwell in poverty for the sake of our salvation.
Not only to pursue the mission, but we need the steadfastness of Christ to stay on mission. Although we live a very short existence in retrospect, this year alone proves that daily perseverance in the mission can be seemingly impossible. Many have given up.
The reality is that suffering is our call and expectation as believers (1 Peter 2:21). Loving as God loved is not like choosing which outfit to wear or what career to pursue; it’s not like any other choice. It’s the hardest, yet most important, decision to say “yes” to. Yet, when the love of God becomes your reality, when you understand how He loved you, loving Him, which involves keeping His commands (John 14:15, 21, 23), becomes the destination of your heart. “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21). We need his steadfastness, the same steadfastness that kept marching up the Via Dolorosa to Golgotha‒steadfast love.
To conclude, a challenge: Where is the destination of your heart right now?
Are you on the journey? Have you drifted from following the Guide and gone off the beaten path? Have you yet to leave “Point A” to journey to “Point B”?
Paul tells the believers in 2 Thessalonians that God is behind you empowering and before you leading this journey to a new reality of knowing Love‒Jesus‒and making Him known which necessitates a steadfastness through the pervasive opposition we will face on this journey through a foreign land.
The mistake is to think that we alone can get to this destination on our own resources and understanding. It’s God’s reality, He’s walked the path, and the destination belongs to Him. We need Him to get there, and we need him to stay the course.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.
In a prayer of benediction, I pray these same words over you as I trust you are also spending a few moments to evaluate through prayer and contemplation where you are at with love and with steadfastness.
May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ (2 Thessalonians 3:5).
Author:
Hey, everybody! My name is Alex! I have a growing passion for the Scriptures, being changed by them as they fill my mind and heart. Through teaching and preaching, I desire to help other believers know the abounding richness of the Scriptures for themselves. Read more of my writing here.
Thank you for allowing us to serve and encourage you today. If “The Direction to a New Destination” was encouraging or insightful for you in any way, please let us know and consider sharing “The Direction to a New Destination” with someone else.
Featured Photo by Joshua Woroniecki from Pexels