A PRAYER TEMPLATE FOR ALL BELIEVERS

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

So we keep on praying for you, asking our God to enable you to live a life worthy of His call. May He give you the power to accomplish all the good things your faith prompts you to do. Then the name of our Lord Jesus will be honored because of the way you live, and you will be honored along with Him. This is all made possible because of the grace of our God and Lord, Jesus Christ.

2 Thessalonians 1:11-12

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Paul believed in the power of prayer. There’s no disputing this truth as we see him consistently telling all the churches he wrote to that he was lifting them up to the Lord. The Apostle knew he couldn’t be everywhere at once to mentor and guide the new Christian believers who were multiplying by the day but he knew that God was with them, ever omnipresent and all capable of doing anything that was needed to provide and protect.

Like most prayers, Paul would tailor his petitions to God based on the specific needs of the church. As we continue to look at the opening chapter of his second letter to the church in Thessalonica, we see him reaching out to the Lord with the following hope for his Thessalonian brothers and sisters in Christ:

So we keep on praying for you, asking our God to enable you to live a life worthy of His call. May He give you the power to accomplish all the good things your faith prompts you to do. Then the name of our Lord Jesus will be honored because of the way you live, and you will be honored along with Him. This is all made possible because of the grace of our God and Lord, Jesus Christ. Vv.11-12

Here we find a template we can use to pray for all Christian believers in the world today. It follows this framework:

1. We pray for the way the Christian believer lives daily.

So we keep on praying for you, asking our God to enable you to live a life worthy of His call.

All Christians are required to answer the call of Jesus which is found in what we know as the Great Commission. Here’s what our Savior commanded in the Gospel of Matthew:

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20

This is the life Christian believers are called to, a life of striving to make disciples daily but sharing the Gospel and helping others know they have a Savior named Jesus who offers them the opportunity for eternal life. All that is required is to simply believe in Him.

As Christians, we need to be in prayer for one another every day, asking that our lives might show that we are living worthy of the incredible responsibility we have been given through Jesus’ calling.

2. We pray for the power of God to equip us with what we need to carry out our calling.

May He give you the power to accomplish all the good things your faith prompts you to do.

No Christian has the necessary strength, wisdom, or discernment to do what Jesus has called them to do. It’s by God’s design that human beings can’t reach a place of complete self sufficiency. We all have an inherent dependency on the One who made and sustains us.

And so when we respond to Jesus’ call to make disciples through faith and obedience, we need to pray for one another that God will impart His power with pinpoint accuracy so we might “accomplish all the good things” the Holy Spirit leads is to do. The Lord never calls us to anything He isn’t going to see us through and so we pray with confidence that He will give us what we need, when we need it.

3. Ultimately, we pray for the name of the Lord Jesus to be honored.

Then the name of our Lord Jesus will be honored because of the way you live, and you will be honored along with Him. This is all made possible because of the grace of our God and Lord, Jesus Christ.

When we live out our lives worthy of the Great Commission calling we have received, allowing God’s power to give us everything we need to make disciples and help the lost become saved, then the name of the Lord Jesus Christ is honored and praised. He is the One we seek to serve and glorify with our lives as the work we do in submission to Him and His Gospel tasking is never self serving. The life of a Christian never is because Jesus’ life was defined by self sacrifice and we’re to live as He did.

Indeed, Christian believers aren’t to steal away any of the admiration and tribute that is to be with the Lord Jesus and Him alone. There’s no need to because we have the promise of glory when this life is over, a glory that comes when Jesus returns and takes us to the place He has prepared for us, to the Kingdom of Heaven where we are co-heirs with our Savior. Consider these words from the eighth chapter of Romans:

Those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by Him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory. Vv.14-17

Christian believers need to pray that the work they are doing for the cause of Christ is bringing honor to His name. Jesus should always be the One who is in the spotlight in everything that we do now while we wait for the proper time when we will share in His glory.

So there you have it, a prayer template all Christ followers can use to lift one another up as we collectively do as Jesus called us to do.

First, pray that the lives of Christians would be worthy of the calling they receive.

Next, pray that God will empower all Christians to do the good things they are called to do in Christ through the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Finally, pray that the name of the Lord Jesus Christ would be honored through the Gospel work we do every day.

I hope you will join with me in incorporating this model for prayer into your daily devotional routine.  

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.