Pray for One Another - 2 (That we might be pleasing to God)

1 Thessalonians 3:9–13 (NKJV)  ⁹For what thanks can we render to God for you, for all the joy with which we rejoice for your sake before our God, ¹⁰night and day praying exceedingly that we may see your face and perfect what is lacking in your faith? ¹¹Now may our God and Father Himself, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way to you. ¹²And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all, just as we do to you, ¹³so that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints.

In this passage, Paul’s prayer is once again for the spiritual condition of his friends.  Yet as a teacher of the Word he recognized that direct face time was important to help build what was lacking in their faith.  Rom. 10 says, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”  If Paul was going to help perfect what was lacking, he was going to have to teach or preach the Word. Biblical pastors are the same. A pastor’s love for his flock evokes a desire to encourage that flock in their faith.  This not only breeds encouragement for the pastor but also the flock.  This encouragement leads to a desire to be present under the administration and teaching of God’s Word causing faith to grow even more.

His second desire expressed in this prayer is that they would “increase and abound in love to one another”

Paul prays that their love for one another would grow and abound, in another word, overflow!  When our love causes us to reach beyond what may be barriers in everyday society such as, economic status, political status, social status, we will forget the socially acceptable forms of cutting one another down and fighting to be first.  We will begin to think of others ahead of ourselves in total opposition to the acceptable norm of thinking of ourselves first.  Imagine once again a church where individuals are praying for one another to grow in love and then see God answering these prayers in the lives of believers.  This love is to be displayed not only within the church but also to those who are outside of the church.  What a testimony of the sacrificial love of Christ!

Paul’s final request in this prayer was that the heart of Christians would be strengthened so that they would be blameless before God.   He prayed in much the same way for the Philippians in Phil. 2:14, “that you might become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and depraved generation, in which we shine as stars in the universe.”  We will all one day stand before God where He will clearly read the hidden motives of our hearts.  Our prayer, just as Paul’s, should be that we might be ready for God’s inspection and be found pleasing to Him.

The video version of this is available at www.youtube.com/churchoflittleon  FW # 44