“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.”
– 1 Thessalonians 3:12–13
So, this is one of those places in the Bible particularly in Paul’s letters in the New Testament where we actually have just a straightforward biblical prayer. This is a spirit inspired prayer for the church at Thessalonica.
God we pray that today we will abound in our love for the church, for Christ, and for the lost and dying world around us.
1 Thessalonians 3:12–13 Calls Us to Faithfulness
And so, when we think about the whole impetus behind this podcast even. John 15:7, “If you remain in me and my words remain in you ask whatever you wish and it will be given to you.” The whole picture is when we pray according to God’s word we can know we have what we’ve asked when we’re praying according to the spirit inspired word he’s given us.
Because we know God will be faithful to his word. So, the whole goal of this podcast is just continually to pray the word of God just day in and day out to take a few minutes to make sure in our day we are asking for what God has told us to ask for in his word. So, it’s really easy to do that when we have a prayer in his word. We have a spirit inspired plea for God’s provision in a certain way.
1 Thessalonians 3:12–13 Helps Us Love One Another
So, I just want to pray this over us and lead us to pray exactly what 1 Thessalonians 3:12–13 say. So God we ask that you would make us increase and abound in love for one another. God, we pray for that. Please help us to increase today, to abound today in our love for one another specifically as brothers and sisters in Christ. We pray for this kind of love and each of our churches.
Help us to love one another well especially when we’re tempted to such conflict and division in the body of Christ. Please help us to increase and abound in love for one another and for all, for all people. God we pray you would give us your love for all people. God help us to love all the people around us today, the people we work with, the people we live with, the people we interact with, and make us loving we pray toward all of them. Help us to increase and abound in love for everybody around us today so that you may establish our hearts blameless in holiness before you our God and father.
Established Our Hearts in Holiness
Oh God, may it be so. Please establish our hearts blameless in holiness. Oh God, please help us to be blameless in holiness, to be without blame. God, we are so prone to sin in so many different ways, in our thoughts, in our desires, in our words, in our actions. God make us blameless today. Make us pur today we pray. Make us holy, blameless in holiness. Help us to live the separate life that you’ve called us to live. As you are Holy help us to be Holy we pray.
Please establish our hearts blameless in holiness before you as we anticipate the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. Oh God. We want to be ready on that day. Jesus, we want to be ready on that day when we see your face. We want to be pure, and holy, and blameless before you.
So help us to live today like it could be the day. Help us to live today like we could see your face at any moment and we don’t want to be caught in any other state but blameless in holiness before you when you come. So please oh God we pray cause us to increase and abound in love for one another and for all that you may establish our hearts blameless in holiness before you especially as we look toward the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. We pray this. We pray your word in Jesus name. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
