To this end we always pray for you,
That our God may make you worthy of His calling…
(2 Thessalonians 1:11-12)
God has called us to Himself.
What does this mean? He has called us to move from darkness to light, from worldly-conformity to holy-transformation, from our most-base selves to the image of Christ. He has called us to move closer to Him. That’s a journey from here to holy.
Note: this will not entail that illusory figment of so many Christian imaginations, “sinless perfection.” Rather, this is life characterized by two features. On the one hand, a robust love of our neighbors, life of prayer, commitment to justice and generosity, hard work at noble ventures, passion for the local church, eagerness to spread the Gospel, etc. And on the other hand, an enthusiastic commitment to the confession of sin, repentance, and consequent delight in the mercies, kindness, and grace of God.
We will be those people who LOVE Jesus most, and those who seek to LIVE LIKE Jesus most, and so as a result will be those who LIVE FOR Jesus in all things. Our righteousness glorifies His righteousness, but so does our unrighteousness: in our current condition, we certainly have plenty of the latter, so that’s good!
We are not worthy of God’s calling.
Those traits do not now characterize us; neither the repentant-traits nor the righteous-traits do. And that’s not okay. We forfeit so, so much as a result. We keep back so much from those we love.
We were made to burn with God’s brightness, to build with His energy, to love with His heart, to give with His openness. And all these would bring us to know more the Joy He always knows. And all these would increase the flourishing and faith of those around us.
But we don’t do them as we should, or could, or would. We ought to live more in step with the Gospel and the Spirit. We could live more in step with Jesus and His Spirit than we do. And we each would love to live more in that way. (Right?! We want to live like Jesus! We want to love like Him, to live with His calm, to experience God always, and to operate as an interface between His glory and the world’s need.)
How will we be made “worth of His calling”?
“That our God may make you worthy”: God makes us worthy.
And, “to this end we always pray for you”: God will use the prayers of others.
In other words, we will not make ourselves worthy. And we will not be made worthy by ourselves.
Stepping over the gap between where we are spiritually and where we would like to be is not a project of will-power, careful-planning, list-making, or any of the many other self-improvement tools we’ve assembled apart from God. No law can create Spirit-born fruit. (Gal 5:23) No “flesh” strength than bring us to Spiritual maturity. (Gal 3:3)
We know that some measure of discipline and planning and, yes, even list-making, will likely be involved. But even those things are in fact God answering this prayer and making us worthy! The discipline, the wisdom, the patient progress: these too are gifts from God.
But they do not come from us. And it is critical—absolutely and utterly!—that we do not forget this.
And a big part of what God uses is the prayers of His people.
Listen, I get that this is like THE WORST… but if you want to grow spiritually (and you do), the best thing you can do is to enlist some friends to pray for you about it. (And if you want a friend to grow spiritually, shelve the advice and focus on prayer. After all, no one likes unsolicited advice. But when, as a result of God’s work, as a result of our prayer, they ask for advice… that’s different, isn’t it?)
Would you like God to make you worthy of His calling? I hope, as we continue to move through these two verses, that you will want that more and more. And if you do, then here’s how it’s done:
1) Ask God to do it,
2) Ask friends to pray for it.
There are other things involved, yes. But minus these two, it doesn’t happen.
That which we most want, which we were created for, fell from, and are called back to in Christ, is a state of being continually thankful for Jesus and eagerly seeking to live like Jesus, by the power of His Spirit. This is also the “You” we all want to see most too. This is also the “us” that the world desperately needs.
So would you join me, and each other, in praying for it? Ask God. Ask friends. And let the adventures continue!
Photo by Jen Theodore on Unsplash
