PRAYING PROPERLY (2 Thessalonians 1:11-12)
INTRODUCTION:
Last Sunday we covered a passage that gave us two future destinies. For unbelievers, their eternal destiny was only bad news, eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power. For the believer, the one who has put his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, his eternal destiny is full of hope, when we will be glorified in the Lord Jesus and marveled at by all who believe. Paul in the end of last weeks passage assured the Thessalonians that they would be in the latter group because they had believed the preaching of the gospel when Paul, Silas, and Timothy had been among them.
As we come into this morning’s passage it is not just one of the many prayers that Paul writes in his epistles, but instead it is a prayer plan, in other words it is how he regularly prays for those who have come to salvation under his ministry. This passage teaches us how to pray properly by following Paul’s example of praying for the right things with the right motives. For Paul prayer was more than just a habit, it was a way of life. Paul’s life was full as he taught, preached, wrote, traveled, exhorted, discipled, suffered and this full load demanded his constant attention, but at the same time, he was in constant communion with God. Paul’s prayer life is a picture for us that prayer is the unending, constant preoccupation of one who knows God intimately. This short section, just two verses, on prayer follows logically the previous passage on Christ’s return looked at in verses 5-10. The Second Coming of Christ should not only be our future hope, but it should motivate us today to live and work for Christ until He comes. Our hope in Christ’s return affects not only our understanding of the future but also our present living. If we are to pray properly then we must have a proper source, we must have proper requests, and we have a proper reason. Paul covers all three of these in this passage. Let’s pray and then read our passage for this morning.
--PRAY--
SCRIPTURE:
Turn in your Bibles this morning to 2nd Thessalonians 1, we will finish this chapter this morning, as we look at the last two verses, verses 11-12. Please, if you are able, stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word.
2nd Thessalonians 1:11-12,
“To this end also we pray for you always, that our God will count you worthy of your calling, and fulfill every desire for goodness and the work of faith with power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.” (2 Thessalonians 1:11–12, NASB95)[1]
THE PROPER SOURCE OF PRAYER (2nd Thessalonians 1:11a)
Paul understood that as the shepherd of the church in Thessalonica one of his primary responsibilities was to pray for his flock always. Paul’s prayers were always directed to the proper source, which is God, where he could reach into the resources of God’s power and purpose for the believers for whom he prayed. A shepherd has only a limited time to teach his flock, but he can pray for them constantly. The main purpose or goal of the Paul, Silas, and Timothy’s prayers for these believers and for all believers is their spiritual growth. Because of this Paul’s prayers for believers were direct and to the point. If we were to go on a search of the prayers of Paul that he had written in his epistles, we would find this to be the primary thing he prays for in each of those prayers.
Paul prayed and asked the Lord to spiritually mature His people because Paul knew that sanctification, just like justification, comes only through God’s sovereign grace, though not apart from a believer’s obedience. Because of this Paul’s letters are also filled with commands, prohibitions, and exhortations to help us in our obedience. God’s sovereign purposes, prayer, and obedience all work together and are necessary elements of sanctification. Praying with a proper understanding of God’s sovereignty aligns our hearts with the sovereign plan of God, but God also works through prayer to bring about His plan. James wrote in James 5:16, “The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.” (James 5:16b, NASB95)[2] God must be the source of our prayers if we hope to see the sanctification of those for whom we are praying, it is only by His sovereign grace that this will happen as the Holy Spirit works in our lives to conform us to the image of Christ.
THE PROPER REQUESTS OF PRAYER (2nd Thessalonians 1:11b)
Paul understood the necessary elements of sanctification were God’s sovereign purposes, prayer, and obedience and because of this Paul lists three requests that he prays to bring about the spiritual end God desires for the believer, and that is sanctification, conformity to the Lord Jesus. Paul requests on behalf of the Thessalonian believers was that they would be worthy of their calling, that God would fulfill every desire for goodness and that He would fulfill the work of faith with power.
Paul begins his first request by writing, “…that our God will count you worthy of your calling…” (2 Thessalonians 1:11b, NASB95)[3] Paul again uses the phrase “our God” to remind the Thessalonian believers that God is not a distant, indifferent God, but a tender caring Father. The phrase “count you worthy” could also be translated “make you worthy.” Either of these translations would work here because God makes worthy those whom He counts worthy. The “calling” that Paul has in view here is God’s irresistible call that without fail results in salvation. Theologians call this the “effectual call” or the “saving call” as compared to the “general call” which is an open invitation to salvation. Jesus spoke of this effectual call when He said in John 6:44, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.” (John 6:44, NASB95)[4] If you have repented and come in faith to Christ believing that His death paid the penalty for sin and His resurrection was the proof that God’s wrath was satisfied then you have answered the effectual call of God in your life.
God takes sinners, worthy only of death and makes them worthy of His kingdom by not giving them what they deserve and imputing Christ’s righteousness to them giving them what they do not deserve. Paul prays that the Thessalonian believers would also prove their worthiness by being obedient to the Holy Spirit’s work of sanctification in them. Paul prayed that they would walk in a manner worthy of their calling. As the Holy Spirit works in us, He produces His fruit in us that proves that we are walking in that worthy manner. John put it this way in 1 John 2:6, “…the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.” (1 John 2:6, NASB95)[5] When we seek to walk in the same manner as Jesus walked, we will be counted worthy of our calling, and this is what Paul prayed.
Second, Paul also prayed that God would fulfill every desire for goodness. “Fulfill” can also mean to complete or to accomplish. Paul is praying that God would bring about all the Thessalonians longings for goodness. Jesus told the rich young ruler that God alone was good and since this is true Paul knew that such a prayer was consistent with God’s will. God defines what is good and what is good for His people by how He answers this prayer. King David wrote in Psalm 37:4, “Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart.” (Psalm 37:4, NASB95)[6] When we delight ourselves in the Lord then His desires become our desires and God joyfully gives us these things. John put it this way in 1 John 5:14-15, “This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.” (1 John 5:14–15, NASB95)[7] Our God is generous and gracious in giving us all the good things from His hand. When our desires are aligned with God’s will, we can declare with Moses, “O satisfy us in the morning with Your lovingkindness, That we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.” (Psalm 90:14, NASB95)[8]
Third, Paul prays that God would fulfill or complete the work of faith He had begun in them with power. Paul taught the truth that salvation is by faith alone, entirely apart from human works. No one taught this more clearly than Paul, yet Paul understood that genuine saving faith would produce spiritual fruit, it is that spiritual fruit that is the proof of our faith, it is the spiritual good works that God has prepared for us beforehand so that we could walk in them. This is a truth that is stated very forcefully by James in James 2:14-26, “What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,’ and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. But someone may well say, ‘You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.’ You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected; and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,” and he was called the friend of God. You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. In the same way, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.” (James 2:14–26, NASB95)[9] Paul knew the Thessalonians’ faith was genuine saving faith because they produced such works. Yet he prays that their work of faith increases in power, so that they would be doing even more righteous deeds, so that they would be producing more spiritual fruit. This power comes through the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives as we seek to know God more intimately through the study of His Word and obedience to it.
THE PROPER REASON FOR PRAYER (2nd Thessalonians 1:12)
Paul had a proper reason or an ultimate purpose for praying for the Thessalonians, and it was not for them, but so the name of the Lord Jesus would be glorified in their lives. To glorify the name of the Lord means to honor and exalt all that He is. Glorifying the name of the Lord should be the deepest desire of God’s people. When the prophet Daniel realized from the writings of Jeremiah that Israel’s captivity was only to last 70 years and led him to pray for Israel’s restoration from their captivity, at the end of his prayer Daniel prayed, “O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and take action! For Your own sake, O my God, do not delay, because Your city and Your people are called by Your name.” (Daniel 9:19, NASB95)[10] Notice what was Daniel’s primary concern, it was not the misery and the captivity of his people, his primary concern was the reputation of his God. Paul’s concern for those who bear the name of the Lord Jesus is that they glorify Him in all they do. When believers glorify the Lord Jesus in all they do, say, and think, they in turn will be glorified in Him. When Paul writes this, he has in view both the eternal glory which will be ours in Christ, and temporal honor. Jesus declared in John 12:26, “If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.” (John 12:26, NASB95)[11] The Lord Jesus will honor those whose lives honor Him.
Paul closes these two verses on prayer by reminding us that the ability to glorify God comes only through the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Like salvation itself, everything in the believer’s life comes by grace, God unmerited favor. Praying for the proper things cannot be separated from holy living, the two are inseparably linked. John Owen, a godly Puritan wrote, “He who prays as he ought, will endeavor to live as he prays.”[12]
CONCLUSION:
In closing this morning let me reiterate what Paul teaches us in these two verses. He is teaching us that praying for others is not for the weak-willed, because it requires commitment and dedication, and it is not easy as we lift our brothers and sisters before the Lord. We must pray to the right source, recognizing that God is the only One that can accomplish or complete sanctification in the life of a believer, we must make the right requests, and we must pray for the right reason, that the name of the Lord Jesus would be glorified in the lives of those for whom we are praying.
Donald Whitney in his book Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life makes an analogy between the dedication of one who prays as Paul describes here and the dedication and tenacity of those who were a part of the Pony Express. He writes, “The Pony Express was a private express company that carried mail by an organized relay of horseback riders. The eastern end was St. Joseph, Missouri, and the western terminal was in Sacramento, California. The cost of sending a letter by Pony Express was $2.50 an ounce. If the weather and the horses held out and the Indians held off, that letter would complete the entire two-thousand-mile journey in a speedy ten days, as did the report of Lincoln’s Inaugural Address. It may surprise you that the Pony Express was only in operation from April3, 1860, until November 18, 1861—just seventeen months. When the telegraph line was completed between [the] two cities, the service was no longer needed. Being a rider for the Pony Express was a tough job. You were expected to ride seventy-five to one hundred miles. Other than the mail, the only baggage you carried contained a few provisions, including a kit of flour, cornmeal, and bacon. In case of danger, you also had a medical pack of turpentine, borax, and cream of tartar. In order to travel light and to increase speed of mobility during Indian attacks, the men always rode in shirt sleeves, even during the fierce winter weather. How would you recruit volunteers for this hazardous job? An 1860 San Francisco newspaper printed this ad for the Pony Express: ‘Wanted: Young, skinny, wiry fellows not over 18. Must be expert riders willing to risk [death] daily. Orphans preferred.’ Those were the honest facts of the service required, but the Pony Express never has a shortage of riders… Like the Pony Express, serving God is not a job for the casually interested. It’s costly service. He asks for your life. He asks for service to Him to become a priority, not a pastime.”[13] What about you? Are you up to the job of serving God with your whole life and at all times seeking to glorify the name of the Lord as we pray for one another?
[1]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[2]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[3]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[4]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[5]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[6]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[7]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[8]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[9]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[10]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[11]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[12] Owens, John, The Grace and Duty of Being Spiritually Minded. Reprint; Grand Rapids, MI : Baker, 1977, 59.
[13]Whitney, Donald S., Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life. Colorado Springs, CO : NavPress, 1991.