God never ceases to amaze me. This month’s memory verse is one of those that you have to ponder on. If you allow the depth of truth hidden in this verse to be revealed, it will surely amaze you! Do you ever feel like sometimes God is saying two opposing things at the same time? This is one of those. Are you ready to be amazed?
2 Thessalonians 3:5 reads, “May the Lord direct your heart to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.” A heart-warming good-to-pray verse. Who doesn’t want their heart directed to the love of God and the steadfastness of Christ? This is one of those verses you could write in a birthday or graduation card. One that makes everyone feel good. And this is indeed a good thing to pray for yourself and others. But there is a great understanding that might change how you pray this verse.
To start, the words “direct your heart”. That “direct” word is kateuthunó, and it means “go straight down by the most direct, efficient route; to go in a direct course – avoiding all unnecessary delays, without any undue loss of time or achievement”. Ok, that makes perfect sense. I have to point out that I just love the “avoiding all unnecessary delays” part. But here comes the weird part of this verse. The word steadfastness isn’t the steadfast love concept I have been writing about this year. It has a different meaning. The word steadfastness is hupomoné and it means “remaining under, endurance; steadfastness, especially as God enables the believer to “remain (endure) under” the challenges He allots in life”. And there you have it. This verse is asking for our hearts to be directed to God’s love in the straightest path possible without unnecessary delays, and then ends the verse that on our way to God’s love we would go through the endurance to remain in hard places that God allows through Christ’s steadfastness. Those seem like opposites to me. A direct path with no delays to a place of remaining under trials? What?
I am reading this devotional book called Amazed and Confused by Heather Zempel. She does a great job explaining this concept. “Sometimes the best thing to propel us towards Jesus is the desperate determination: that potent combination of certain dispairs in your circumstances and humble confidence in Christ that draws His heart to you.” (page 41) Or I would say draws your heart towards His.
Think about it. God wants every man, woman, and child’s heart to turn toward Him – to seek Him, to want Him and Him only. Sometimes the only way to do that is to allow “trials” in our lives that bring us to a place where the only way to get through them is with the steadfastness of Christ. Maybe just maybe those hard, sometimes impossible to overcome on our own bumps in the road, are the straightest path for us to find Christ to help leads to the father’s heart.
It’s amazing, isn’t it? That God loves us so much that He would direct our hearts to places that are necessary to find Jesus even if we think they were completely unnecessary. It’s a love that leads only to what we need and stirs us – if we let it – away from things that are unnecessary in the process. The key is an open heart and a willing obedience to go where He leads and trust Him to give us the endurance to make it through the rough places to find Him.
The next time you are going through one of those hard places, ask God to open your eyes to the steadfastness of Jesus so you can know His love deeper in the end. Ask Him to lead you, and pray He will show you what you once saw as completely unnecessary you would see as necessary to know His love.
Click Here for June’s Memory Verse.