December 6

Read: II Thessalonians 1:11-12

Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would… fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power (II Thessalonians 1:11).

The Prayer For Perfected Goodness

A prayer for God’s full will in my life is an earnest desire for every effective means of accomplishing that will. Paul is concerned that we may be ready for the coming of Christ, of which he speaks in verse 10. In order that we may be prepared to stand before God, he offers the earnest petition: “That our God may… mightily perfect within you all the content of goodness, and the work of faith” (Conybeare).

Olshausen renders the verse, “May He fill you with all the good which is pleasing to Him.” Similarly, Phillips translates, “He will effect in you all that His goodness desires to do.” What is this “goodness,” this “work of faith” for which Paul prays? M. F. Sadler, a great Anglican commentator, answers, “The good pleasure of God respecting any creature is that he may be as good and holy and happy as he is capable of being.”

In an earlier letter Paul had prayed: “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly, and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (I Thessalonians 5:23). The petition here is the same because there m but one preparation that makes us ready to stand before God. In the first letter Paul pleads for sanctification — for the destruction of the evil; here he prays positively for the completion of the good.

My heart responds to his prayer. (Adapted from W. E. McCumber.)

Prayer For Today

Father in heaven, I would make Paul’s prayer my own. Perfection me all the goodness that; is pleasing to Thee, that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be gloried in me.