Marsha's Musings: The Lord's Faithfulness & My Prayers

My Quiet Time:

But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one. And we have confidence in the Lord about you, that you are doing and will do the things that we command. May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ. (2 Thessalonians 3:3-5 ESV)

In the verse previous to this it said that "not all have faith", but then Paul says, "But The Lord is faithful."  What a great promise!  When others are not faithful, The Lord is faithful.  When we fail, The Lord is faithful.

Notice, it says He is the One Who will establish you and guard you against the evil one.  This is not to say we just lay back on our beds and go through life passively.  On the contrary, in other places in Sripture it tells us to be on guard against our adversary, the Devil.  Yes, The Lord does guard us against the Devil.  If God has saved us we are saved from the clutches of the evil one on judgment day, but that is not to say that we will not be still tempted by him to sin. As long as we are in this world, we have to fight the world, the flesh and the Devil. We do not reach moral perfection until we go home to heaven.  But The Lord is faithful to give us what we need to fight these things and if we are truly saved He will guard against the evil one on the last day.

Paul prays that his readers would be directed of The Lord into the love of God and the steadfastness of Christ.  Do pray this for my fellow Christians?  Do I pray that they would be in the love of God, know the love of God, practice the love of God and that they would find their steadfastness in Christ, not in themselves?  Do I pray this for myself?  

The more I read Scripture the more I see where my own prayers fall so short of the mark.  My prayers are so trite.  They center around temporal issues instead of spiritual issues.