I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary.
– Revelation 2:3
So I want to make a connection here between Revelation 1:9, which we prayed according to in a previous podcast episode, and Revelation 2:3.
Revelation 2:3 encourages us to embrace grace to endurance in faith.
So this is the letter in Revelation 2 to the church in Ephesus. And in these letters that Jesus writes speaks to these different churches, he often commends them for things and then convicts them, calls them out on certain things. And the commendation here in the church in Ephesus is, I know you are in enduring patiently. That’s the same phrase that appears in Revelation 1:9. We see it multiple times in this book, which is again, a reminder to us that that’s part of the purpose of this book. This book is not intended just to fascinate us with images and confuse us with questions.
No, it’s intended to help us endure with patience in this fallen world with faith in Jesus holding on to him. That’s the picture. Here, Jesus is saying to his church, you are enduring patiently. You’re bearing up for my name’s sake. They were experiencing all kinds of pressures as a result of following Jesus, and they were holding up by God’s grace amidst those pressures. And then it says, and you have not grown weary. You’ve been strong in this.
And when I read that verse, the reason I want to meditate on it and pray according to it with you right now is because I know there is some of you who have grown weary and patient endurance is hard in your faith right now. I know that there are some people listening right now. I’m guessing many. I don’t know if I’d say most, I just, only the Lord knows. You know what’s going on in your life right now.
Revelation 2:3 leads us to bring our weariness to God.
But are you weary, physically weary, emotionally weary, intellectually weary? Are you spiritually weary? I just think of all the different ways that we might be weary, that you might be weary. And I just want to pray. Revelation 2:3 over you. And as I do, without going into details, I would just confess, I’m with you. I’m weary. Most of my journal entries these days began with I’m weary, Lord. And I just want to encourage you that we can bring our weariness to God and to call out for his help, for his strength, and he promises to provide it. This is the beauty of Philippians 4:13, that no matter what circumstances we are in, we can continue. We can endure through Christ who strengthens us. I just want to pray that over the weary right now. So God, I pray for all those who are weary.
And anyway, right now, I pray that you would be their strength. Jesus, fill them with your supernatural strength that you alone can supply them. God, I pray for their physical strength, emotional strength, mental strength. And God, I pray for their spiritual strength when this body is failing and when emotions are up and down. God, I pray that you would hold them up with the strength that Jesus alone, that the Spirit of Jesus alone in them can supply God.
This verse reminds us God will give us strength to endure.
I pray that they would Isaiah 40 be strong in you, in the Lord. They would, as Isaiah 40 describes, mount up with wings like eagles and soar and run, not based on their own strength, but based on your strength, because they’re waiting on you, because they’re trusting in you, because they’re enduring in you that you would give strength to the weary today. And God, even as I pray that, even as we pray that for each other, God help us to be a source of strength instrument in your hands to strengthen others who are weary today.
God, help us to be sensitive to weariness in others today and help us to build up others and strength in their faith today to help them patiently endure, to help them be strong amidst their weariness. God, use us today to be a picture of your strength to the weary.
Prayer for the Danish Jewish People
And God, we pray, especially during these days where we’re praying for just the Jewish diaspora around the world. We pray specifically for Danish Jewish men and women in Denmark.
God, we pray for the thousands of Danish Jewish men and women and children. For the spread of Jesus love and grace and peace and strength to them. That you would open their eyes cause the gospel to spread to them and open their eyes to the love and mercy and peace and strength that are found in Jesus alone. We pray all of this in the name of Jesus, in the name of the one who strengthens us. 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.
