A Prayer for You and Me

1 Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you, 2 and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. For not all have faith. 3 But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one. 4 And we have confidence in the Lord about you, that you are doing and will do the things that we command. 5 May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.

Pray

1. Pray for Gospel Opportunities

Paul begins his prayer for the church by requesting that the church aid him in his mission to get the gospel to the nations by getting on their knees with him in prayer.

Paul sensed an urgency to get the gospel out to the surrounding region, even the world. This was not something that he believed could just be pushed into the future.

Think about it for a minute. If you were Paul and you were a part of a small group of Christians that were beginning to get persecution from the Romans and especially from the Jews, you would probably sense the enormity of the task that Jesus had left to be accomplished. I mean, let’s be honest, even today it seems like an impossibility and maybe you even feel like it’s a loosing battle. But today, we have technology that allows us to do things Paul could never have dreamed of.

The difference is that Paul was passionate about getting the gospel out and felt that he had no time to waste. We don’t either! We should be praying that the gospel would advance. We should be on our knees regularly for the souls of the lost.

However, we should not just pray that the gospel would advance and just sit back waiting for it to happen. We must be a part of advancing it. Paul prayed and he got to work going from town to town and village to village preaching the gospel.

Application:

When is the last time that you prayed for someone who was lost?

When is the last time that you shared your faith with someone?

We often make sharing the gospel something that is difficult. We think we have to have some long, technical outline memorized. It really is as simple as sharing what God has done in your life.

The story of the gospel, in fact the whole Bible, can be summed up in four words.

Creation

Fall

Redemption

Restoration

Your personal story falls along these same lines as well. God made you. You sinned and rebelled against God. You were redeemed and came to faith in Jesus. Now, God is restoring your life and creating a new future for you.

That’s the story of the gospel. We are called to share; God is the one who saves. Since that is true, that leads us to realize we need to not only pray for the gospel to go forth, but also for fruit to be produced.

2. Pray for Conversions (v. 1b)

Paul asked that the church pray for faith among those who hear the word of God. Paul asked that the Thessalonians pray that people would believe just like they had.

Application:

Do you have someone that you know who is lost that you are praying for?

Pray for the lost by name. Call them out before the Lord.

3. Pray for God’s Protection (v.2-3)

Not all have faith....

Many have sought to stope the spread of the gospel.

There were some real people that wanted to kill Paul and stop him on his mission, just like there were some real people who wanted the Thessalonians dead.

4. Pray for Obedient Hearts (v.4)

Paul prayed that the church would do what they had been taught.

5. Pray for An Increasing Love for Each Other (v.5)

We should abound in love towards one another. As Jesus changes us from the old man to the new, as we give up our old sinful habits and change to become more like Jesus, we should begin to love more like Jesus. That was essentially the theme of 1 John.

The Apostle John wrote,

1 John 2:7 ESV

7 Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard.

1 John 2:9–11 ESV

9 Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. 10 Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. 11 But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

Friends, we must find ways to grow in love towards others. We have to do better than our social media warrior culture has encouraged us to be.

Find someone that you can show some love to. Do something nice for someone without expecting anything in return.

Conclusion

God has done a lot for us. We need to pray that others could be saved like we have been

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