Pray for One Another part # 1

2 Thessalonians 1:3–5, 11- 12 (NKJV) ³We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is fitting, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of every one of you all abounds toward each other, ⁴so that we ourselves boast of you among the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure…¹¹Therefore we also pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power, ¹²that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

How often are our prayers focused on ourselves and on physical needs?  As we look at Paul’s prayer in II Thessalonians we see immediately that Paul’s concerns go well beyond the physical.

He begins by praising God that the Thessalonians faith was growing exceedingly.  Their trust in the Lord was greater day by day.  He continues his praise being thankful for the Thessalonians love for one another. The third area of Paul’s praise dealt with the fact that they were standing firm and faithful in spite of persecutions and tribulations.

As Paul gets to the end of this section he moves from praise to prayer.   His first request is “that God would count you worthy of this calling.”  DA Carson explains this by saying, “That means these believers must grow in all things that please God so that he is pleased with them, and finally judges them to be living up to the calling that they have received.  In short, they are to ‘live a life worthy of the calling [they] have received.’ (Eph. 4:1)”[1] For those of us that have trusted Christ as Savior we should be concerned with pleasing the God we claim to serve.  This is not immediately perfect but grows as we are sanctified and submit to the guidance of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  

The second request is that the Thessalonians would through the power of God and their faith grow to the point that they are fulfilling the good that God intended them to fulfill so that they are fully pleasing Him.   Carson clarified this saying, “What Paul presupposes is that God’s people have been so transformed through their conversion to Jesus Christ and His gospel that they now develop new sets of goals.  Prompted and shaped by goodness and faith they inevitably formulate new purposes, decidedly Christian plans, Christian goals.” [2]

Imagine how our churches might be different if this were the way we as individuals were praying for one another.

The video version of this is available at www.youtube.com/churchoflittleton   FW # 43 

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[1] Carson, DA., A Call to Spiritual Reformation, pg. 53

[2] Ibid, pg. 56