To Encourage You

2 Thessalonians 3:1-2 “Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you, and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. For not all have faith. “

One of the temptations that can come to us as we read the Bible is to think that it is somehow removed from our everyday experience.  We can think of it as a spiritual book about apostles, prophets, holy men, and Jesus, but that it’s really removed in some way from us in the here and now. 

For example, in the verses above we have the apostle Paul asking the Thessalonian church to pray for him.  And so our thinking can go, well that was Paul, Saint Paul, the Paul whose name is on church buildings all around the world – but what does this prayer have to do with me?  But then we have Scriptures like the following one that say this: “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).  So here we have this same apostle telling Timothy – and us – that all Scripture is meant for us. It’s all profitable.  It all has something to either teach us, reprove us, correct us, or train us in some way or other to live a righteous life. It’s all meant to equip us for “every good work” that God means for us to carry out in the life that He’s given us.  

So, what about the verses above?  What do they have to teach us?  I’m sure there are many things – and certainly more things that I could ever hope to touch upon in these few words.  But one of them is to give us an example of prayer that God will honor.  You see, it’s not just Paul that is writing this to the Thessalonians but it is the Holy Spirit writing to us. In this way God is giving us a prayer that we should pray – and more than that, that we should ask other believers to pray for us.  God is telling us that we need His help to do His work, and integral to that help is our need for prayer.  

So do you ask people to pray for you? Specifically, have you ever asked people to pray that through you God’s Word would spread to others who don’t know Him?  Is that a need that you feel you have? Or is prayer just meant for times when you’re sick, or someone has died, or you or others you love have some physical trouble of some kind?  

We see here that one of the things we are to be about is sharing God’s Word, and to do so, we absolutely need prayer.  But what, specifically, is it about this that Paul asks prayer for?  First, he asks that the Word of God would “speed ahead.”  We hear a sense of urgency in his words.  He wants to make the most of his opportunities. People are lost. They are without Christ. They need to hear the gospel, and it’s up to believers to spread the Word.  It’s surely one of the most important things in his life.  Is it one of the most important things in your life and mine? Do you realize that there are people all around you who aren’t saved?  Do you realize that you may be the only one in their world who can reach them with the gospel? 

And then he asks that the Word of God would be honored. In the King James Version, the word used is “glorified.”  It means “to make renowned, render illustrious, i.e., to cause the dignity and worth of some person or thing to become manifest and acknowledged.”  In other words, Paul asks for prayer that when he preaches the gospel that he would speak of it in a way that others would see the great worth, the majesty, of this message.  He wants them to understand what a great salvation the gospel offers to them. And he wants those that hear it to have their eyes opened to the glory of the message they are hearing.  It’s a message that is unparalleled in all the world.  He prays that those who hear would have their eyes opened to “see wondrous things” in God’s Word (Psalm 119:18).  

Finally, Paul asks for protection from evil men who would oppose him. He was certain (and we can be certain as well) that as he shared the wonderful message of salvation with others, there would be those who would not believe, and would even oppose him in one way or another.  Jesus warned us that if they persecuted Him, the perfect Son of God, they will persecute us who follow Him for “a servant is not greater than his master” (John 15:20).  

Of course, we can avoid all this by keeping our mouths shut. If we have no intention of telling others the good news of the gospel, we’ll never ask for prayer in the way Paul did.  If we see the Scriptures as something removed from us, not really meant to be taken as literal guidance for our own life, then this will all seem irrelevant.  But if we would follow the Lord, if we would be one who sincerely wants to be used of God in a way that can influence people to know Him and to enter the kingdom of Heaven, then the prayer of Paul, and in fact all Scripture, will be seen as profitable for us, something to be examined very carefully, and something to be obeyed.  Yes, if we really want to know God’s will for us, if we want to know why He put us on this planet, then it’s all there for us, written down in black and white in His Word.  But as Jesus said so often, “He that has ears to hear let him hear” the glorious Word of God that has been given to us. 

So, if you are a believer, please pray for me!  And I would be happy to pray for you as well.  And may our prayers for one another bring glory to the One Who teaches us how to pray.