2 Thessalonians 3:1

Finally, dear brothers and sisters, we ask you to pray for us. Pray that the Lord’s message will spread rapidly and be honoured wherever it goes, just as when it came to you.

As Paul brings this letter to a close, we see into his heart. He asks the Thessalonians to pray for him. He could go into some detail about his specific needs, but he doesn’t. He immediately invites prayer that the Lord’s message will spread rapidly. A literal translation of the Greek would be “that the word of the Lord may run”. Because Paul so often used athletic imagery, he was almost certainly trying to convey his desire that the good news should be spread quickly and effectively. He longed for the message to be respected and accepted by as many people as possible. That’s what had happened when he’d visited Thessalonica, and he was eager that it should happen in the same way in the much tougher context of Corinth, from which he was writing this letter.

I believe that we need to be praying today with a new urgency “that the word of the Lord may run”. It’s all too easy for us to accept our multi-religious society and to lose our passion for sharing the good news of Jesus. We are called to show grace and generosity to people of other religions. It is good that we get to know them, befriend them and embrace opportunities for working alongside them. However, we are also called out of our love for them to be faithful to our Lord who came to die on a cross that they might experience His forgiveness and new life.

When we pray for one another, we should keep the focus on the spreading of the good news. Let’s pray that we will all become more urgent in our evangelism and increasingly eager to see word of the Lord run throughout our society.

Question

What do you find the biggest challenges to sharing your faith with others?

Prayer

Lord God, I ask You to give me a renewed determination to share Your good news with those I meet each day. Amen