3RD DECEMBER
2 Thessalonians 3:1-3
“Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honoured, as happened among you.”
God is the one who opens people’s hearts to the gospel, so ask people to pray for you as you witness for Jesus!
That’s what Paul does here. He asks the Thessalonians to pray for him as he shares the gospel, that it would be honoured by the people he is sharing with, just as it was when he shared it with the Thessalonians. If we look back to his first letter to these people, we see how they received the gospel:
“You received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit” (1 Thessalonians 1:6). “For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God” (1 Thessalonians 1:9). “And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers” (1 Thessalonians 2:13).
Paul knows that only the work of God in answer to prayer could have produced such a response in the Thessalonians’ hearts when they heard the gospel, so now he calls on them to pray as he shares the gospel with others, that their hearts would be open and responsive too.
MAKE IT PERSONAL:
Why do you think God wants other people to play a role in your spiritual growth and ministry?