“Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ.” (2 Thessalonians 3:5)
The journey directed by the Lord
The Greek verb here rendered “direct” occurs twice elsewhere in the New Testament: in 1 Thess 3:11, and in Luke 1:79 where it is translated “to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
Literally the word signifies “to make thoroughly straight what has gone awry, to turn back or straighten what has become crooked.”
The Christian’s heart is apt to return to its old bias and become warped: this prayer is for the righting of that fault.
We are prone to allow our affections to wander from God and make an idol of some creature.
Therefore we constantly need to beg Him to bind them to Himself, that our love may be unalterably fixed upon its true and only worthy Object.
We are also prone to grow slack in the performance of duty, to become weary in doing good, especially when we meet with opposition and affliction.
Therefore we need to earnestly ask God for the grace of endurance, that our knees do not become feeble and that our hands do not hang down, but that we “hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.”
– A.W. Pink