What Is My Prayer for You?
2 Thessalonians 2:16– 17, “Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, Who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace, comfort and strengthen your hearts in every good work and word.”
I pray for God to encourage you in three ways.
First, be encouraged in God’s love: “Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, Who has loved us.”
How does God the Father demonstrate His undeniable love for us?
John 3:16 (NIV84), “For God so loved the world that He gave His One and Only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” (see also Romans 5:8).
The Cross is about God the Father’s love, as much as it is, about God the Son’s sacrifice.
Romans 8:32 (TPT) elaborates, “For God has proved His love by giving us His greatest treasure, the gift of His Son. And since God freely offered Him up as the sacrifice for us all, He certainly won’t withhold from us anything else He has to give.”
In 1 John 4:10 (NIV84) you see how God the Father demonstrates His love for us: “This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an Atoning Sacrifice [Propitiation] for our sins.”
Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary explains, “Propitiation—the Atoning Death of Jesus on the Cross, through which He paid the penalty demanded by God because of people’s sin, thus setting them free from sin and death. The word [propitiation] means ‘appeasement.’ Thus, propitiation expresses the idea that Jesus died on the Cross to pay the price for sin that a Holy God demanded.”
Jesus’s substitutionary sacrifice fully satisfied the wrath of God for your sin.
Likewise, you see the love of our Lord Jesus Himself in 1 John 3:16b (NIV84), “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us.”
2 Corinthians 5:21 (NLT) helps us appreciate the sinless substitutionary selfless sacrifice of Jesus: “For God made Christ, Who never sinned, to be the Offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.”
Remember, according to 2 Thess. 2:13, you are “Beloved by the Lord.” God the Father loves you the same way He loves Jesus, His Beloved Son.
“In that day you will ask in My Name,” Jesus reassures us, “and I do not say to you that I will request of the Father on your behalf; for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came forth from the Father” (John 16:26–27, NASB95).
“Beloved” be encouraged in God’s love for you in Christ.
For more information visit: jenkinsmemorialbaptistchurch.
com.
Also, if you do not attend church, we invite you to join us for Bible Study each Sunday morning at 9:30am and worship at 10:45am.
Jessie J. Charpentier is Pastor of Jenkins Memorial Baptist Church in St. Martinville.
