“So we keep on praying for you, asking our God to enable you to live a life worthy of his call. May he give you the power to accomplish all the good things your faith prompts you to do. 12 Then the name of our Lord Jesus will be honored because of the way you live, and you will be honored along with him. This is all made possible because of the grace of our God and Lord, Jesus Christ.” v. 11-12 (NLT)
Have you ever had good intentions? Have you ever had good intentions spiritually, like Reading the Bible, Praying more often, Sharing your Faith, Repenting of Sin in away that you don’t want to do it again, but then over time find that you have given up of fallen short? I know I have! I’ve had good intentions but then lacked the follow through, the commitment, the discipline, and ultimately the power to accomplish some of these things. Why, because I tried to do them in my own power!
One of the most challenging Spiritual Disciplines for me is prayer. Yes, I pray but I wish it was more of an instinctual natural attitude instead of an, “Oh yeah, lets pray moment.” I think sometimes this causes me to rely on myself more times than I should, causing me to have several good intentions.
Paul prays that God would enable you(us) to live a life worthy of his call. Then he goes on to say that we would have the POWER, this is supernatural God given power, to accomplish the things our faith challenges us to do. God given power!!!! What has God been challenging you to do? Are you doing that in your own power or is God given power doing that through you? This is the difference between good intentions and transformation!
Today, let’s not let our life be defined by good intentions, but let us rely on the God given power to produce in us the discipline, strength, and commitment we need to accomplish all the good things your faith prompts us to do.
Dan Gould 