“Never stop praying” (1 Thessalonians 5:17 NLT)
”So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.” (Hebrews 4:16 NLT)
“Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.” (Mark 11:24 NKJV)
I was considering moving away from Paul’s prayers, but the Holy Spirit seems to want me to keep going in this direction. We have probed, personalized, and prayed together with Paul’s prayers for the Ephesians (1:15-23 & 3:13-21), the Philippians (1:3-11), and the Colossians (1:3-14). Today we are going to begin probing a prayer that Paul offered up for the Thessalonians (2 Thessalonians 1:3-12) . Once again we will follow our established outline…
…Step 1: Probe the prayer under the light of the Holy Spirit.
…Step 2: Personalize the prayer with the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
…Step 3: Pray the prayer through the power of the Holy Spirit.
As is our pattern, we will start by reading the prayer and relying on the Holy Spirit to prepare our hearts and minds to receive whatever he has for us as we pray with Paul…
… “We feel a personal responsibility to continually be thanking God for you, our spiritual family, every time we pray. And we have every reason to do so because your faith is growing marvelously beyond measure. The unselfish love each of you share for one another is increasing and overflowing! We point to you as an example of unwavering faith for all the churches of God. We boast about how you continue to demonstrate unflinching endurance through all the persecutions and painful trials you are experiencing. All of this proves that God’s judgment is always perfect and is intended to make you worthy of inheriting the kingdom of God, which is why you are going through these troubles.
It is right and just for God to trouble your troublers and give rest to the troubled, both to you and to us, at the unveiling of the Lord Jesus from heaven with his messengers of power within a flame of fire. He will bring perfect and full justice to those who don’t know God and on those who refuse to embrace the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the penalty of eternal destruction, banished from the Lord’s presence and from the manifestation of his glorious power. This will happen on that day when he glorifies his holy ones, and they will be marveled at in all those who believed—including you, since in fact, you believed our message.
With this in mind, we constantly pray that our God will empower you to live worthy of all that he has invited you to experience. And we pray that by his power all the pleasures of goodness and all works inspired by faith would fill you completely. By doing this the name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified in you, and you will be glorified in him, by the marvelous grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.” (2 Thessalonians 1:3-12 TPT)
Get ready to grow as we move forward from…
…Eric’s Life Lesson # 490: Praying With Paul – 2 Thessalonians 1:3-12: Part 1