Garry spoke this morning from 2 Thess 1:11-12, where Paul prays that by God’s power He may ‘bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith.’ This echoes Psalm 20, which asks God to ‘give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed.’ (Ps 20:4) Ps 37:4 also urges us to ‘take delight in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.’
A heart desire is something which is held deeply and is highly valued. Paul talks about the Thessalonians’ desire for goodness; he talks about God fulfilling His good purpose for our lives in Phil 2:12-13;. God really wants what is best for us, but this means leaving our old lives and old desires behind. We must let go of our sinful desires which corrupt us; we need to say ‘no’ to ungodliness and worldly passions (see Titus 2:11-13).God wants to give good gifts to us (Matt 7:9-11), but we have to let go of the old in order to receive His good gifts.
Paul also prays for our deeds prompted by faith to come to fruition. Sometimes it can be hard to continue in our deeds; we have a tendency to give up when lfie gets tough. 1 Cor 15:50-58 reminds us that we need an eternal perspective in order to persevere and must be prepared to be steadfast in our works. We must not stop before God does and must not continue after He stops, but this involves careful listening to God so that we are sure that what we are doing is indeed prompted by faith. Paul prayed for fruitfulness from our desires and deeds; we must learn to persevere in faith with all that we do and realise that fruitfulness is what God desires from us more than anything else.