Prayer for Our Hearts to Be Directed into Love
David W Palmer
(2 Thessalonians 3:5 NKJV) “Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ.”
The third prayer we look at concerning love is found in this passage. The Holy Spirit leads the apostle Paul to pray that the Lord would “direct your hearts into the love of God.” This, therefore, is another prayer we can pray for ourselves and for others. Let’s find out what it means, and why the Holy Spirit gives it.
In the original language, the word translated “direct” means to guide and direct. Paul is praying that the Lord will guide and direct their “hearts” into God’s love; in other words, that the inner-witness of the Holy Spirit will shepherd them into actions and choices that will be for the highest good of all involved. This is a great prayer for us to pray also. We need God’s help and wisdom to know what is the most loving way forward, and then we need his grace to be able to stick to that narrow, constricted path. (See: Mat. 7:12–14.)
Don’t forget the part about “the patience of Christ.” This has a twofold application for us: when we show patience with other people, it helps them to feel loved; we will need Jesus’s own persistent endurance working in and through us to overcome the enemies of patient love. There are many of them—urgency, impatience, judging, giving up on people, and time pressures. etc.—but when the Holy Spirit directs and empowers us in the “patience of Christ,” we can overcome them all.
As we are led into love, Jesus expects us to love God the Father, himself, each other, and the people of the world, like he does. He clarifies this by commanding us to love one another as he has loved us, and that we should love our neighbour as ourselves. The word elucidates the love he expects of us by saying, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you!” And it describes love in the famous 1 Corinthians 13 passage: “Love is patient and kind, etc.”
The apostle John is clear in his message that we should love our brothers and sisters in deeds and in truth, not just by giving lip service. He says in effect, “Love is what love does.”
In the New Testament, Jesus gives us one new commandment: “love one another as I have loved you.” It has many aspects and applications. It is the fruit of the spirit, and the goal of the commandments; it also involves laying down our lives—our wants, desires, urgencies, and priorities—for the needs of others. We need to take Jesus’s command to love very seriously, and make it a priority in our lives.
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(Ephesians 1:4 NKJV) “Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.”
In eternity past, God set up the whole new covenant—the new birth, and us in Jesus. His final objective—through the whole process of birth, sin, forgiveness, regeneration, and grace—is that we should be “holy” and blameless before him “in love.” Love is the final word of the ultimate outcome. Yes, love is, and always has been, God’s objective.
He wants us to be holy, hence grace. He wants us without blame; hence Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection with us in him. And He wants us to be guided by love. He has done his part; he has made redemption, forgiveness, the new birth, righteousness, and grace available; he has given us his word, his Spirit, and his love. Now, it’s up to us to respond by entering the door he is holding open for us as fast as we can. Let’s sit at his feet, drink in his life, absorb his love, believe his promises, pray to be guided by love, and find his grace. Then we can reach his objective for us: being holy and blameless before him in love.
(2 Corinthians 13:11 NKJV) “Finally, brethren, farewell. Become complete. Be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.”
Who can you love today as Jesus has loved you?
(John 13:34 NKJV) “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”
(John 15:12 NKJV) “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”