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Welcome to Daily Drive Time Devotions, our look at 1 Thessalonians chapter 3.
Day 4 of our look through this chapter, we're going to be looking at the last
few verses in this chapter, verses 10 to 13, the next couple of days. They're
verses in which we read a prayer of the Apostle Paul.

And as you read this prayer in this look at the authentic life in the book of 1
Thessalonians, this is authentic prayer. This is prayer that really makes a
difference. Authentic prayer to me is not just emotional prayer or even not just
vulnerable prayer where I'm sharing all that I feel to God, although that isn't
part of it.

Authentic prayer is prayer that makes a difference. You look at one of the
prayers of the Apostle Paul and you see in those prayers all throughout the New
Testament that they have a different direction, they have a different tone than
many of our prayers. And you realize I can learn.

I can learn from reading his prayers. I have a lot to learn from reading his
prayers. Let me read for you the prayer of the Apostle Paul in verses 10 to 13.

"Night and day," he said, "we pray most earnestly that we may see you again and
supply what is lacking in your faith. Now may our God and Father himself and our
Lord Jesus clear the way for us to come to you. May the Lord make your love
increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else.

" Just as ours does for you. "May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be
blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus
Christ comes with all his holy ones. " As we look through this prayer of Paul
these next couple of days, I'm praying that your prayer life will be different.

Even now as I'm saying these words, I'm praying in my mind that our prayer life
will be different in some way from this point on because of what God's word does
in us and for us and to us. That some new habit of prayer will come into your
life. That some new conviction about prayer will come into your life.

What if you'd been able to sit down and interview the Apostle Paul on the
subject of prayer? In essence, that's what we get the opportunity to do here as
we read this prayer. So what can you learn from Paul?

Well, four things. You pray frequently. You pray earnestly.

You pray specifically. And you pray with the ultimate end in mind. Let's walk
through those.

First, Paul says you pray frequently. Paul says night and day we pray most
earnestly. Night and day.

You pray all the time. This prayer that Paul prays, it's going to challenge you
to a new level. While many of us struggle to pray once a week, once a day, here
we're stretched to pray throughout the day.

That's a different way of thinking about prayer. In fact, this is going to work.
Here's what I want you to do right now.

It's the only hope that I have for incredible change that can happen in our
lives. When it comes to the subject of prayer, all you've got written on the
blackboard right now, just take an eraser and for these next few days, just
erase it all. Now, some of it's good, some of it's bad.

I realize that. But just for the moment, erase it all. Start with a blank
whiteboard, blackboard, whatever color you like of the board, and write on it
these truths of the Apostle Paul.

And one of them is I need to pray throughout the day. They don't have to be long
prayers. In fact, one of the habits that I have is to try to pray the first two
minutes.

First two minutes of what? First two minutes of whatever I'm doing. First two
minutes, I walk into the office.

First two minutes, I'm in my car. First two minutes as a meeting starts.
Sometimes it's a prayer out loud.

Sometimes it's a prayer in the back of my mind. But it helps me to remember to
pray throughout the day, to make it a constant habit conversation throughout the
day. You pray, Paul says, frequently.

Write that on the blackboard. Second thing he says is you pray earnestly. In
fact, he said we pray most earnestly.

The idea most earnestly here, the phrase means exceedingly earnestly. It's
interesting. It's the same words that are translated exceedingly abundantly in
Ephesians chapter 3 verse 20.

That verse says, "Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all
that we ask or think, according to his power that works within us. " Put these
two together. Paul says we pray exceedingly earnestly here to a God who is able
to do exceedingly abundantly over in Ephesians.

We pray exceedingly earnestly to a God who is able to do exceedingly abundantly.
That helps you to pray earnestly. You pray with all your heart.

If there's one area in life in which you should go for it, it's in your prayers.
Quit being matter of fact. Pray with all your heart.

Stop the cliches. Pray with all that you have. John Bunyan said, "When thou
prayest, rather let thy heart be without words than thy words without heart.

" And Abraham Lincoln said, "I have been driven many times to buy knees by the
overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. " That's the earnestness
of prayer that only God can answer. Paul was praying that God would supply what
was lacking in their faith.

They had a lot to learn and Paul wanted to teach them. God was going to supply
it through the teaching of his word and Paul was praying, "I hope I can have a
part of that. " So pray earnestly.

And one way you might remind yourself to do that is by praying out loud. By
talking to God not just telepathically in your mind but by expressing the
emotion, the heart of prayer out loud. Read through the book of Psalms and you
see a lot of earnest prayers.

There's a great model there. You pray earnestly. Number three, Paul said, "I
pray specifically.

" And this is the area, believe it or not, where many of us struggle the most.
We struggle because in one sense we don't want to tell God what to do. So we
just say, "God, I don't want to pray too specifically.

You just do what you want. You know best. " But Paul here reminds us that we
need boldness.

That God expects us to pray very specifically. Boldness does not mean ordering
God around. What does boldness mean?

In the New Testament, boldness means asking God to act. Asking God to act in the
situation. "God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ," he says here.

Now don't miss the fact that they are put alongside each other as co-equal.
They're not just mentioned side by side. This double subject is followed in the
Greek by a singular verb.

They're one. God our Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. The God
of all the universe, the triune God.

We are asking him to act and that gives boldness. Someone has defined prayer as
a means God uses to give us what he wants. Sometimes God wants to work in your
life, but because you or I fail to pray specifically, it never happens.

Because we never act. Boldness is asking God to act. I know some people think
that prayer is just a healthy exercise, spiritual exercise for us.

That it doesn't really change God's plans in any way. So they'll say things
like, "Well, prayer changes you, but it never changes the circumstances. " Well,
the Bible says, the Bible says it changes both.

The problem is, we pray for specifics sometimes in biblically uninformed ways.
We specifically pray for God to do things that he's told us specifically that
he's not going to do. God changed that person's heart whether they want it or
not.

God said he's not going to do that. So that gets us confused sometimes. But when
you get to understand God's word and you pray specific prayers as Paul did based
on God's word, then you see things change.

Now, this is so important. We're going to talk about this more specifically
tomorrow. The specific things that Paul prayed for, what we can learn from him.

But you pray specifically. You ask God to act. And then you do a fourth thing.

You pray with the ultimate end in mind. In verse 13, Paul says, "May he
strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of
our God and Father when our Lord Jesus Christ comes with all his holy ones. "
And it's interesting.

Every chapter of 1 and 2 Thessalonians ends with a reference to the second
coming of Christ. And Paul refers to it here. And he says, "Remember when you
pray that this world is not all there is.

Many prayers will be seen to be answered in heaven that you had no idea were
being answered while you were on this earth. " Paul says pray with that in mind.
Pray with the ultimate end in mind.

That day when Jesus Christ comes with all of his holy ones. Now, his holy ones,
those are the believers who have died before he returns and who come back with
him. We're going to talk more about that in the next chapter.

Paul is talking here in prayer about an eternal motivation, the return of
Christ. Throughout the New Testament, it's the return of Jesus that motivates
believers to live a holy life. Looking forward to that day.

And that is the day. Get this. That is the day that you're praying towards in
all of your prayers.

You're not just praying about tomorrow. You're not just praying about next week
in your prayers. In every one of your prayers, when you pray with the ultimate
end in mind, when you pray towards that day, you pray more powerful prayers.

And so we need to pray frequently. We need to pray earnestly. We need to pray
specifically.

We need to pray with the ultimate end in mind. If you're like me, you've got a
lot of praying to do to get that kind of praying. So let's ask God right now to
help us to learn to pray.

Pray with me. You might just pray this prayer. Lord, I want things to change,
really change in my prayer life.

I pray from time to time. I want to learn to pray all the time. Teach me to
pray.

I pray casually. I want to learn to pray earnestly. Teach me to pray.

I pray in broad generalities and not in specific requests of the heart. Teach me
to pray. Jesus, my prayers often stretch no further than tomorrow.

When I want them to reach towards eternity, teach me to pray. I pray with faith
that you will. I pray with faith that you will because you love me and because
you've told me that you want me to learn to pray, to communicate with you.

Teach me to pray, Jesus. I pray in your name, amen.