Pray For Us

Pray For Us (I Thessalonians 5:25)

I Thessalonians 5:25, “Brethren, pray for us.”

Paul had already set the example throughout this letter by praying for the Thessalonians. Paul offers a humbling and profound reminder to the church. He desired that they pray for him. Then he turned and asked the Thessalonians to pray for him. Paul depended on prayer. He told the Romans in Romans 1:9, “For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers.” He earnestly wanted the church to pray for him. Paul was not so prideful that he thought that he was above prayer. Paul understood that prayer gets God's will done on earth. Paul knew he needed the prayers of the Thessalonians. Paul also counted on the prayers of the saints (Ephesians 6:18-20; Colossians 4:3; II Thessalonians 3:1-3).

I can assure you that if the apostle Paul desired and needed the prayers of the church, we do as well. We need to continually lift one another up in prayer unto the Lord. We are living in a difficult day. We will never endure without the help of the Lord. We need to pray for one another. We need to make it a daily priority to pray for the church! Notice: Paul does not say, "please" or "if you will." He emphatically charges: "Brethren, pray for us." All believers must pray for their ministers. The idea is that we must pray often, not just every day, but often every day. We have a charge and command from the Bible to pray for one another, but also to pray for the leaders of the church. Pray for pastors, especially your pastor. Pray that the Lord would fill him with His Spirit, guide his mind, guard his heart, and I pray that the Lord would give him purpose and direction. Pray for his marriage, his family, and his ministry as he seeks to shepherd the flock of God.

Paul was well aware of the need and power in prayer. John Livingston, of Scotland, once spent a whole night with a company of his brethren in prayer for God's blessing, all of them together besieging the throne; and the next day, under his sermon, five hundred souls were saved. When Jonathan Edwards preached “Sinners in the hands of an angry God”, the entire congregation was moved by his powerful sermon, some of them even grasping hold of the pillars of the sanctuary from feeling that their feet were actually sliding into the pit. But the sermon's power is known by very few. Some Christians in the area of Enfield, Massachusetts, had become alarmed lest, while God was blessing other places, He should in anger pass them by; and so they met on the evening preceding the preaching of that sermon and spent the whole night in agonizing prayer. “What the Church needs today is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more novel methods, but men whom the Holy Ghost can use—men of prayer, men mighty in prayer.” - E.M. Bounds

Paul told Philemon in Philemon 22, “But withal prepare me also a lodging: for I trust that through your prayers I shall be given unto you.” If a man so blessed as Paul needed and depended on the prayers of others, how much more do we? Samuel said in I Samuel 12:23, “Moreover as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you.” When we fail to pray for others we sin against the Lord.

The story is told about two wives who were doing their laundry in a laundry mat. They were both mending their husband’s pants. One wife said, “My husband is so miserable. Nothing goes right at work, and he can’t find anything good on television. Our home is a place of despair. When we go to church, the song leader is terrible and the pastor is boring. The other wife said “My husband is so excited. He can’t wait to go to church. He loves the sermons. We laugh all the time and enjoy our family.” It got very quiet in the laundry room as the women continued sewing the pants. One was patching the seat of the pants, and the other was patching the knees.

Questions to Consider:
Do you pray for your pastor?
Have you made it a regular habit to pray for your pastor in the past?
Would you begin to lift up the man of God to the throne of God?

Points to Ponder:
Prayer works and Paul understood that principle.
What an impact would be made upon the world if we obeyed this one charge.
The measure of any Christian is his prayer life.
The thermometer of a church is its prayer meeting.

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