The verse pops first because I think it’s a Trinitarian verse. But as I chew on it, it’s the twofold prayer that feeds my soul.

The church at Thessalonica really was a remarkable church. Paul had only “three Sabbath days” to “reason with them from the Scriptures” about Christ’s needful sufferings and His inevitable resurrection before Paul was run out of town by Jews who were “jealous” (Acts 17:1-5).

Planted amidst opposition, the small fellowship quickly put down deep roots and thrived amidst opposition (1Thess. 1:13-14). And the founding Jews of that church along with the grafted in Gentiles quickly became a body of believers that were known and celebrated throughout the Christian world (1Thess. 1:6-10). This was a church that knew how to keep on keeping on.

But keeping on can wear you down. Keeping on only invites more opposition. Keeping on keeps you on the evil one’s radar. And so, as Paul wraps up his second letter to this faithful body of believers, it’s a prayer Paul prays for them that resonates as a prayer prayed for me.

May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.

(2Thessalonains 3:5 ESV)

First thing that hits me? Looks to me to be a Trinitarian prayer as the Lord who is directing hearts would seem to be the Spirit. The Spirit guiding the believer to the Father and the Son. The Spirit removing barriers and making straight the discernings of the heart towards the love of God and the steadfastness of Christ. And where’s that Triune action happening? Inside the believer.

Stop right there. Look down at your chest. And ask yourself, “Is that what’s happening inside me right now?”

Imagine — though you really can’t — the Spirit in you stirring in you an awareness of God’s steadfast love and Christ’s “for the joy set before Him” endurance (Heb. 12:2). The Helper helping you to know afresh the goodness of the Father and the power of the Son. What!?!? Really!?!? Kinda crazy, if you think about it. Talk about your encounter of the divine kind!

And then . . . like you really can get past the “then” . . . after considering that triune dynamic, chew on the twofold directive. Hearts directed to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.

What Paul prayed for them, I imagine Jesus interceding for me (Heb. 7:25). That this day, through the Spirit, my being would be secured in the Father’s love which surrounds me and that my way would be settled through the Son’s steadfastness which strengthens me.

I am not heading into this day alone. I’m enveloped in the presence of a Triune God, energized by hearing the promises of a twofold prayer.

By His grace. For His glory.