Prayer requests

Prayer requests

Finally, dear brothers and sisters, we ask you to pray for us. Pray that the Lord’s message will spread rapidly and be honored wherever it goes, just as when it came to you. Pray, too, that we will be rescued from wicked and evil people, for not everyone is a believer. 2 Thessalonians 3:1-2 NLT

No matter where we are in our stage of spiritual maturity, we will not outgrow the need for prayer. This is what we see from our text. Paul is requesting the believers in Thessalonica to pray for him and his group of missionaries. Paul knew the difficulties of living out the Christian life and that he understands that the only way you can be faithful in fulfilling God’s call is to express dependence on Him through prayer. Prayer is an invaluable resource for Paul as he serves the Master. He sensed how dangerous the ministry that he asked believers to pray for him and his friends. This example set before us by Paul provides us an understanding of how important prayer is for us. It is not a ritual or a religious practice that we engaged with but it is having an honest interaction expressing our dependence and trust upon the Lord our Savior. It is foolishness if we think that Christian life can be lived out without prayer. Paul’s request is that “the Lord’s message will spread rapidly and be honored wherever it goes.” There is an inherent transforming power in the message of the gospel this is why God’s enemy will try to hinder the spread of it. Paul’s request is that the proclamation of God’s Word will not be hindered and that it will accomplish its purpose. Paul and his friends knew the difficulties of proclaiming God’s Word and he was not asking to pray for an easy Christian life but that in the midst of difficulties, proclaiming the Word of God will not be hindered. The believers from Thessalonica are familiar to such opposition for they themselves had an encounter with “wicked and evil people” (see Acts 17:5-9). Not everyone who heard the gospel will place their faith in Christ. There will be those who will be contentious in their rejection of God’s truth. There will those that will receive the gospel with joyful obedience and trust in God but there will those that will be resistant to the message. Just like Paul, every servant of God should be lifted up in prayers. This why private and public times of prayer are very important. All Christians were given the ministry of praying for one another for everyone has a stake in the success of the spread of the gospel and His kingdom.

Blessings,