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II Thessalonians 3.1, 2 (NIV)
Pray for us that
the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored. . . And pray that we may be delivered from wicked
and evil men, for not everyone has faith.
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| Prayer is the most essential part of all ministries.* |
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How
many times have you endured an agonizing prayer request time in a Sunday school
class or other church-related gathering? I have heard requests for healing for
celebrities (okay, sick or injured celebrities can benefit from prayer, too);
that the hurricane not hit us (but it should hit someone else instead?); for
lost and sick pets. And then there’s the very personal,
too-much-information-for-this-setting sharing of real and serious needs.
There’s
nothing wrong with making our requests known – to God and to our fellow
pray-ers. God is interested in the details of our lives. But Paul shows us here
how our prayer life can reach a new level of maturity. He doesn’t ask for
deliverance from hardships and danger (I would); he just doesn’t want the work
to be hindered. He wasn’t praying for rescue from the unreasonable and the
wicked – he just wanted to be free to preach the message.
The
next time you are asked to voice your prayer requests, why not ask for the
“success of the gospel ministry” and for the “safety of gospel ministers”?*
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| God . . . has made . . . the success of his Gospel dependent, in a certain measure, on the prayers of his followers.* |
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