21 September 2005 Devotion for Today "Worthy" 2 Thessalonians 1:11
One of my favorite praise choruses that I like to sing in church
goes like this:
"Worthy, You are worthy,
King of Kings, Lord of Lords,
You are Worthy.
Worthy, You are worthy,
King of Kings, Lord of Lords,
I worship You."
When I sing this song, I feel like I express almost everything that
is in my heart about what I want to say to Jesus. I say almost,
because the limitations of the human soul are incapable of completely
uttering what our Savior really deserves to hear. Never the less
that is what worship is-expressing as much praise as we imperfect
sinners are capable of rendering to a worthy God.
In our devotional text today in 2 Thessalonians 1:11, the Apostle
Paul makes a curious phrase: "Therefore we also pray always for you
that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all
the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power."
Why would he say pray that God would make them worthy, when he knows
full well that, as imperfect people, they are not? We know that none
of us is worthy or inherently deserving of salvation-or anything that
comes from God-for that matter. Everything that we have is of pure
grace. To count means to consider. What Paul is really saying here
that in his prayers that the Thessalonian church would understand
their proper place in the way that they see themselves before God.
Paul had just finished encouraging the church as they encountered a
great deal of persecution from the Roman authorities. When one goes
through persecution and extreme difficulties, there is a sense, brought
on by the devil, that one deserves such difficulties and that they
had the persecution coming to them. They may feel as though God does
not like them, or they must not be doing something right or else God
would be blessing them. The collective self-esteem of the Thessalonians
must not have been very high when Paul wrote to them.
This is Paul prays in this way, so that they understand that they are
valued so much more highly by God-not because of their own righteousness-
but because of who they now are under the blood of Jesus Christ. And
today, when we sing praises to God, and attribute to Him all that we
are, we express the power of that new relationship and position that
we now have with Him. Its all because of the righteousness of Jesus
Christ being given to us by Him. We are not necessarily worthy, but
we are made as though we are. Have a blessed day.
One of my favorite praise choruses that I like to sing in church
goes like this:
"Worthy, You are worthy,
King of Kings, Lord of Lords,
You are Worthy.
Worthy, You are worthy,
King of Kings, Lord of Lords,
I worship You."
When I sing this song, I feel like I express almost everything that
is in my heart about what I want to say to Jesus. I say almost,
because the limitations of the human soul are incapable of completely
uttering what our Savior really deserves to hear. Never the less
that is what worship is-expressing as much praise as we imperfect
sinners are capable of rendering to a worthy God.
In our devotional text today in 2 Thessalonians 1:11, the Apostle
Paul makes a curious phrase: "Therefore we also pray always for you
that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all
the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power."
Why would he say pray that God would make them worthy, when he knows
full well that, as imperfect people, they are not? We know that none
of us is worthy or inherently deserving of salvation-or anything that
comes from God-for that matter. Everything that we have is of pure
grace. To count means to consider. What Paul is really saying here
that in his prayers that the Thessalonian church would understand
their proper place in the way that they see themselves before God.
Paul had just finished encouraging the church as they encountered a
great deal of persecution from the Roman authorities. When one goes
through persecution and extreme difficulties, there is a sense, brought
on by the devil, that one deserves such difficulties and that they
had the persecution coming to them. They may feel as though God does
not like them, or they must not be doing something right or else God
would be blessing them. The collective self-esteem of the Thessalonians
must not have been very high when Paul wrote to them.
This is Paul prays in this way, so that they understand that they are
valued so much more highly by God-not because of their own righteousness-
but because of who they now are under the blood of Jesus Christ. And
today, when we sing praises to God, and attribute to Him all that we
are, we express the power of that new relationship and position that
we now have with Him. Its all because of the righteousness of Jesus
Christ being given to us by Him. We are not necessarily worthy, but
we are made as though we are. Have a blessed day.
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