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Stay On The Road
Jon Burgess“May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance.”
2 Thessalonians 3:5
The Apostle Paul is urging the the Thessalonican Church to make sure they are getting directions from the right source. Our hearts are easily distracted, dissuaded, and misdirected often based on circumstances or input we receive around us. The source of our salvation sets the course for our vocation. This is John 3:16 all over again. Look at the description of our direction:1. "The love of God"- God so loved the world that He sent his one and only Son. 2. "Christ's perseverance"- that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. This keeps our heart on track when everything around is trying to derail us.
If our heart is the car on the road of life we need both the guard rail of Gods love and the perseverance of Jesus at the wheel to keep us on the road. For example, when we are surrounded by hate, vitriol, and false accusation our hearts can easily get misdirected into defensiveness, pride, revenge and self-preservation. We become aggressive drivers and cause destruction primarily to ourselves and those in the car with us. However, if the love of God is our guard rail then we won't go off that side of the cliff. We are loved. The love He has for us does not change regardless of what mud people may hurl at our windshield. We have been loved while still in our sin and made clean by this love and so we keep driving. We won't let our heart get hard or cold on the slippery road of revenge, but we will keep moving forward directed by His love. Secondly, when Christ's perseverance is behind the wheel we won't be tempted to take destructive detours. When life gets busy, the challenges are mounting, the body gets tired and the head gets foggy our hearts can easily get misdirected. Our hearts will veer into the oncoming traffic through self-destructive escapes of entitlement. We may feel like just pulling off to the side of the road in idle indifference and letting life simply pass us by. The perseverance of Christ is our guide to keep going on this road. Through the temptations of Jesus, the death of John the Baptist, the attack of the Pharisees, the betrayal of friends, and the vicious pain of the Cross, Christ preserved. He didn't take a single detour even when his heart may have been tempted to do so. He followed the guard rail of the love of the Father and then kept trucking in perseverance towards the Cross. We wouldn't have salvation in our hearts and a hope for tomorrow if Christ had failed to persevere when all around Him urged him to do otherwise.
Thank you God for your love that keeps me grounded and Your perseverance that keeps me going. There are so many distractions on this road of life. Please keep my heart directly connected to Your daily directions through Your Word and by Your Spirit!
