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Welcome to Daily Drive Time Devotions. Let's change the world these next 10
minutes. We're looking today at verses 11 and 12 of chapter 1 of 2
Thessalonians, and it's a prayer of the Apostle Paul.

And prayer changes everything. Prayer can change the world. So instead of just
looking at these verses, listening to them, let's pray them together.

Of all the ways to change, there's one that's more powerful than any other. And
it's not politics or media exposure or even Bible teaching. Prayer has the power
to change our lives like nothing else.

There's direct connection to the Father. When I pray a prayer of faith, God
listens. And of all the things that I can pray about, if I look at the example
of the New Testament, there is one thing that I can pray about that is more
powerful than any other.

And that is praying prayers for believers. All praying is vital, but we are
invited to pray much for believers in the New Testament. That's the prayer
that's modeled the most.

So that reminds me of how important that prayer is. Praying for others who know
Christ to live out the life that God has given them to live. So as I talk
through these ways to pray for believers, I invite you to pray for believers
that you know.

And then as we come to the end, I want to pray for you. But first, I want to
tell you what we're going to pray, and I want you to pray with me as we walk
through this. Now in a way, this is a part two about the kind of prayers that
really work.

We looked at part one way back in 1 Thessalonians. In 2 Thessalonians, we really
get sort of a part two of 1 Thessalonians. Paul is writing back just a few
months later to remind them of what he taught them.

And over in 1 Thessalonians chapter 3 verses 10 to 13, he'd reminded them to
pray frequently, to pray earnestly, to pray specifically. Well, in these verses,
verses 11 and 12 of chapter 1, he reminds us again of how to pray. I've got to
be reminded, I don't know about you, but I've got to be reminded again and again
of how to do the right thing.

Two things. How to pray and what to pray for. How to pray.

Two ways. Verse 11, just the first part of that verse, "With this in mind, we
constantly pray for you. " Those are two things about how to pray.

First, pray with the future in mind. He says, "With this in mind. " With what in
mind?

Well, with what we just talked about. With the glorification that is to come.
John Stott said a prayer, "It is prayer that links the future to the present.

" That's the faith connection. You see the future that God is working towards in
prayer so that it becomes a reality in this world. Now, when it comes to praying
for what God wants to happen in the future, could it happen without our prayers?

Well, of course it could happen without your prayers. God can do anything he
wanted, but God has decided that he wants to involve your prayers in the process
of what he's doing. And if you don't pray, he'll find somebody else.

But why would you want to miss out on being a part? Being a part of what God is
doing. And by the way, as we talk about this prayer towards the future, there's
a huge difference between New Testament prayer and what I would call New Age
thinking.

New Age thinking is that thing that says you achieve whatever you believe. If
you just believe it enough, it'll happen. It's all based on our willpower, which
is not enough.

Prayer causes us to focus instead on the power of God's will, not our willpower.
That's the difference. You're focusing on the power of God's will.

God, what do you want and how can I pray for it? Truth is, you can make some
things happen through your willpower, but not a fraction of what will happen
through prayer. And even the little that you make happen through just your
willpower, it's not what's most important.

It's not what really lasts. So you pray with the future in mind. God's future.

And the second thing we learn here is you pray constantly. We looked at that in
the last book, 1 Thessalonians. We constantly pray for you.

And just as a reminder, that doesn't mean you pray every moment. That would be
impossible. Sometimes you're in a conversation.

You can't think and say at the same time. But it does mean throughout the day.
It's just a constant habit throughout the day to connect with God and maybe with
one word or two words or three words or a sentence.

Don't have to be long prayers, but it's a constant habit throughout the day.
That's how to pray. Now, what do you pray for?

Well, the last half of verse 11 through verse 12 talks about that. Let me read
those verses. We pray constantly that our God may count you worthy of his
calling and that by his power he may fulfill every good purpose of yours and
every act prompted by your faith.

We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ might be glorified in you
and you in him according to the grace of our God and our Lord Jesus Christ. So
join with me here as we walk through this, talk through this, pray through this
also. Think of a believer in your mind and right now pray that God would count
them worthy of his calling.

Every one of us who are believers have a stamp on our lives and God's stamp says
worthy. Do you see it? Do you see it in your own life?

Do you know someone who's having a hard time seeing it right now? Pray that God
would help them to see it. Sometimes you don't see that stamp.

It might be covered by the way you acted this last week or something you said to
somebody today or by feelings that you don't deserve such an honor and I think
sometimes we all feel like the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15, 9 he said, "I
am the least of the apostles. I am not worthy to be called an apostle after the
way I persecuted the church of God. " Even though he didn't feel worthy, Paul
recognized here that we all are worthy because of what Jesus Christ has done.

Paul's saying daily, "I recognize my worth that's found in Christ. " My worth.
God showed what you were worth to him on the cross, everything.

So pray for a believer right now. God help them to see what they are worth. It's
more specific here.

It says worthy, not just what you're worth though, worthy of his calling. The
worth of the cross is expressed through the call of God in my life. God has
given me something to do.

So pray for a believer in your mind right now. God help them to see, to
understand that they're worthy of living out the life you made them Not just of
being a believer, but of living as a believer, of working and acting as a
believer. When it comes to the call of God in our lives, it's both general and
specific.

Overall, generally, we're all called to be a part of God's family. But then also
specifically, we have our life direction. We have our work.

We have our relationships. So pray for a fellow believer. Help them, God, to see
your call in their life, in all these areas.

I pray, number one, that God would count you worthy of his calling and that
you'd see that. And then Paul prays for a second thing for believers. I pray he
says that you will see the working of his power.

Right now, somebody in your small group, somebody in your family, somebody in
your church, somebody at your work, a believer that you know, pray that they
would see the working of his power. And Paul says that by that power, God would
fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act that is prompted by your
faith. Now that you're called, Paul is saying, my prayer is that you'll begin to
fulfill that calling in some very specific ways in which you'll see the working
of God's power in your life.

You'll fulfill that power through every purpose that's good. God's calling is
expressed in the purposes that are in our hearts and in our minds. And Paul
says, I want to see it fulfilled in every purpose that's good.

Not just every purpose, but every purpose that's good and not just some purposes
that are good. He says, I want to see it fulfilled in every single purpose
that's good that you have in your mind. Every one of them fulfilled in some way.

And he also prays a second thing. Not only every purpose that's good, but every
act that is prompted by your faith. God's calling is eventually expressed in our
actions.

It begins in our mind. It begins in our heart. It begins in the purposefulness
that we have in our lives.

But eventually it has to be expressed in our actions. And he uses the phrase
here, every act that is prompted by your faith. When you think of a prompter,
you think of somebody on a stage who is prompting somebody with their lines,
helping them to go to the next step.

What prompts you in your daily life? Some people are prompted by fear and
selfishness. Some people are prompted by ugly things like guilt and pride and
anger and bitterness.

And if that's the prompter that you're listening to, the words that come out of
your mouth are going to be very different than words of faith. God says there's
a lot of prompters in our lives, but the one you want to listen to is your
faith. Fulfill every act that is prompted by your faith.

So pray right now. Pray for somebody you know that they would see the working of
God's power. Experience it maybe like never before by God fulfilling every good
purpose in their life.

By God showing them that he is working through every act that is prompted by
their faith. Now, the reason for all of this, all these prayers for believers is
summed up in one word, the word glory, glory. In verse 12, "We prayed this so
that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ might be glorified in you and you in him,
according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

" You see how this builds? The cross is expressed in our calling. Our calling is
expressed in God's purposes.

God's purposes are expressed in our actions and the result of it all is God's
glory. He is glorified through our lives and we are glorified in him. Just one
reminder as you look at this verse, "According to the grace of our God," it says
here, "there is no glory without grace.

" And that brings us back, full circle, back to the cross. Every bit of glory
that comes through an action of faith or of love in my life, it's simply
magnifying the grace of God. As we walk through this, I hope you prayed for
somebody.

God help them, help them to see you at work in their lives. Now I'd like to pray
for you. Lord, I pray personally for each person listening to my voice right
now.

Help them to know that they are worthy of your calling, that they are privileged
to live a life that shows the value of the cross. Help them to see the working
of your power in their lives through their actions of love and faith, to
realize, God, that it is you, it is you who's doing it, nothing. And help them
to understand at the depth of their soul that, God, it's all for your glory.

It's not for us, it's for you who've done so much for us. And so, Jesus, we
thank you. In the end, we thank you and we pray that you glorify yourself
through our lives.

In your name, amen. Join us next week. We're going to focus on chapter two of
Second Thessalonians.

It's a chapter that has a lot about the second coming of Christ. In fact, I
always encourage people, if you want to understand the second coming of Christ,
study first in Thessalonians way before you study the book of Revelation because
there's some very clear and pointed truths about the second coming of Christ in
both of these books. We'll see you next week.