Well hey there, hello hello! Welcome back to The Burt (Not Ernie) Show - this is episode 75.
I would like to jump right in today, and read a verse from the NT. As I read, would you think to yourself, “What exactly is the Lord promising to me in this verse?”
2 Thessalonians 3:3 (AMP) But the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen you [setting you on a firm foundation] and will protect and guard you from the evil one.
And let’s also look at it in the NLT - But the L...
Well hey there, hello hello! Welcome back to The Burt (Not Ernie) Show - this is episode 75.
I would like to jump right in today, and read a verse from the NT. As I read, would you think to yourself, “What exactly is the Lord promising to me in this verse?”
2 Thessalonians 3:3 (AMP) But the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen you [setting you on a firm foundation] and will protect and guard you from the evil one.
And let’s also look at it in the NLT - But the Lord is faithful; he will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one.
The verse starts with the word “But”, so let’s just take a look at what verses 1 and 2 said so that we have an idea, a framework, for verse 3. It feels a little disjointed otherwise.
(NLT) - Finally, dear brothers and sisters,[a] we ask you to pray for us. Pray that the Lord’s message will spread rapidly and be honored wherever it goes, just as when it came to you. 2 Pray, too, that we will be rescued from wicked and evil people, for not everyone is a believer.
So when the message came to them, these people at Thessolonica, they were changed (because God’s Word is life changing so we should be more surprised when people’s lives aren’t changed than when they are.) They wanted to share about the life-changing message, about Jesus, and so the message spread rapidly. And you know, when we let God’s Word, when we let the Good News about Jesus change our lives, we honor the message of Jesus.
So Paul’s prayer request was that the message would spread rapidly and be honored wherever it goes (still a really great thing to pray for!) And that they would pray he and his cohorts would be rescued specifically from wicked and evil people. And he ends verse 2 with such a simple and profound statement - for not everyone is a believer. Please don’t forget that truth. Not everyone is a believer. And there are wicked and evil people in the world who will push back and fight against and even attack those who want to share the Good News about Jesus.
That’s what comes before the word but we find in verse 3 - But the Lord is faithful, He will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one.
I feel it’s safe to say that this isn’t just a good word, a good thing to keep in mind, for that particular church body thousands of years ago. It’s for us today, too. Yup - reality is there are wicked and evil people. Yup - not everyone is a believer. But the Lord your God, He is faithful. Count on that! It’s so true for us today & for many of us, we need to remember He is faithful! He will never cease to be faithful! And He will strengthen you (there is that powerful word will - what God says He will do, that is what He does!) And He will guard you from the evil one.
This is really quite a promise!
The AMP says He will strengthen you, setting you on a firm foundation.
That’s really key.
We all have our lives standing on, resting upon, some kind of foundation. So if we gotta have a foundation, it probably may as well be the best possible foundation, am I right?
The evil one God is guarding you from, according to this promise, is the one who as I mentioned appears as an angel of light - deceives the nations - is the prince of the power of the air, so he be controlling some stuff, almost all the stuff, that’s like in the airwaves...music, tv, on the Google, and so on. Am I stepping on any toes today? Uuf. The enemy will take some truth and twist it to deceive people - he is the father of lies. And he knows what the Bible says - he knows it very very well.
That is who God will guard you from.
This is a really important promise!
I think the key for us is to A) know what the Bible says so that we can know that we know that we know what God’s promises to us are and to B) apply those promises, those iron clad things God has for us, to our lives.
This is my verse. This is also your verse. How will you and I actually live our lives as if it is ours?
So I have three more verses I wanted to talk about today … and I am going to listen to the leading of the Holy Spirit and stop here because if I add more verses to this, what I just shared may end up lost in a pile of words, ya know? And I think God wants you to hear it today and just know it is true for you.
God will guard you from the evil one, from your enemy. He will, and even right now, He is guarding you.
Can you spend a few moments thinking about this verse? Praying about the exact things in your own personal life that feel like an enemy assault? If you know it’s the enemy messing with you, can you take this verse and apply it to the situation?
Let me read both versions once more, and then I would like to pray for you and encourage you to spend some time, even five minutes, praying about your life and the stuff of life that is coming at you fast and furious.
Okay - first the NLT - But the Lord is faithful; he will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one.
And now from the AMP - But the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen you [setting you on a firm foundation] and will protect and guard you from the evil one.
Father, today I come before you, before Your throne of grace, boldly to ask that You do a work in the lives of every single person who listens to this episode. Make Your words from 2 Thessalonians 3:3 true for them, and do not delay. Move, Lord. Act, Lord. Hear us as we cry out to You and answer us. Protect us, guard us, from the evil one and also from those who oppose Your message and who are not believers. Let Your Word spread rapidly, even via this podcast, and may it be honored everywhere. Do in each listeners life exactly as You have promised to do. Protect them and guard them, set them on a firm foundation, strengthen them today and then do it again tomorrow - and show Yourself faithful in our world today. I ask this in Jesus name - Amen.
Thank you for letting me pray for you today. Please spend a few minutes with the Lord and let His promise renew your courage and strengthen your heart today.
I will see you back here next week for episode #76.
And also, this week in the online prayer group Praying Through the Storm with Jan L. Burt on Facebook, we are reading Psalm 91, verse 1 and praying that verse over our lives. The link is in the show notes if you want to join us and invite friends as we pray all the way through the 16 verses of Psalm 91 - one verse each week. It’s a fitting psalm for our times so please, join us there. Use the link or just search for the group name Praying Through the Storm.
Praying Through the Storm online prayer retreat group
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