Be strong in times of trouble
O Lord our God, accept the fervent prayers of your people; in the multitude of your mercies, look with compassion upon us and all who turn to you for help; for you are gracious, O lover of souls, and to you we give glory, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now and forever. Amen. (Anglican Book of Common Prayer, 2019)
2 Thessalonians 2:13-17 NRSV
But we must always give thanks to God for you, brothers and sisters beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the first fruits for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and through belief in the truth. For this purpose, he called you through our proclamation of the good news, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by our letter.
Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and through grace gave us eternal comfort and good hope, comfort your hearts and strengthen them in every good work and word.
Though we in the West may not feel (at least now) the intense threat of persecution that the early church experienced, we must hold with all our might to the lifeline these invocations offer: “May the Lord Jesus Christ himself” give us the comfort and hope we need to pass through our time. Without it, we are lost. Beloved, the roar of the lion seeking to devour us is equally menacing now as at any time. Hearing Paul’s invocations in this passage, we declare forthrightly that we need you, Jesus, to direct our hearts and create steadfastness within us.[1]
Howard Marshall
The future of the Thessalonian Christians depended not only on the work of God and their own response but also on the prayers of their friends. Paul backs up his exhortation with a prayer, expressed in the third-person form. It conveys incidentally that Jesus (named first) and the Father are the joint source of spiritual blessings. It reminds the readers that God loves them and so has given them encouragement and hope for the future—despite the fearful events mentioned earlier in the chapter. It asks that God will continue to encourage them in their hearts and make them resolute in acting and speaking in ways which demonstrate the reality of their faith. Paul . . . meant to warn his readers that the end was not as near as they thought and to encourage them to stand fast despite the dreadful event that still lay ahead. Its message to Christians today is that they should not be concerned to identify ‘signs of the end’ but should be alert to the moral and spiritual issues which arise in times of persecution and temptation to abandon faith in the Lord and his coming.[2]
Dear Lord and Savior Jesus Christ:
I hold up all my weakness to your strength, my failure to your faithfulness, my sinfulness to your perfection, my loneliness to your compassion, my little pains to your great agony on the Cross. I pray that you will cleanse me, strengthen me, guide me, so that in all ways my life may be lived as you would have it lived, without cowardice and for you alone. Show me how to live in true humility, true contrition, and true love. Amen.
(Anglican Book of Common Prayer, 2019)
What a Friend We Have in Jesus
If you have found this meditation helpful, take a moment and give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Corinthians 4.15).
[1] https://anglicancompass.com/today-in-the-spirit-proper-27c/
[2] I. Howard Marshall, “2 Thessalonians,” in New Bible Commentary: 21st Century Edition, ed. D. A. Carson et al., 4th ed. (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, 1994), 1289–1290.
