who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus,
the great Shepherd of the sheep,
and ratified an eternal covenant with his blood—
may he equip you with all you need
for doing his will.
May he produce in you,
through the power of Jesus Christ,
every good thing that is pleasing to him.
All glory to him forever and ever! Amen. Heb 13:20-21
What a great prayer!
First, it identifies the one to whom we pray-God! Sounds basic, but in any conversation, it’s important to be clear about who we are speaking to! In this case, it’s the God of Peace who established an eternal covenant with us through the sacrifice of Jesus.
Then, the first object being prayed for: ‘all you need for doing his will’. We don’t need any more, and shouldn’t settle for anything less! Once we understand what His will is, then we simply pray to be equipped to do it.
The next thing prayed for is for God to ‘produce in you…every good thing that is pleasing to him.’
I believe that our sense of personal fulfillment comes from these two things alone:
1. God given gifting and equipping for doing His will.
2. Christ given power to produce everything good that he gives us to do.
It’s like God gives us a tailor-made toolbox, just for us, then gives us the blue prints for what he wants us to do, and tops it off by supplying all the power we need to pull it off!
We may be a bit more familiar with a companion verse to this one: Rom 8:28:
And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
Word of caution- often misquoted and applied, it does not say that all things are good things, it simply says that all things will work good out under specific conditions. When you couple these thoughts together, you get the big idea:
If we love God and accept his calling on our lives, He will equip us to accomplish his will in us, supply everything we need and will produce good things through us that are pleasing to Him!
