Grateful Hearts (1 Thessalonians 1:2)

We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers.
– 1 Thessalonians 1:2

What a great start to this letter, and I want you to think about how this relates to the way you and I pray. Paul starts, introduces himself at the beginning of the letter. Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy writing this letter to the church of the Thessalonians, “Grace to you in peace,” and then he says, “We give thanks to God always for all of you.”

1 Thessalonians 1:2 Shows Us Paul’s Gratefulness for the Church

He’s continually giving thanks to God for these people. Just picture what that looks like. Paul thinking about these people a lot and constantly thanking God for them. God, thank you for this person. Lord, thank you for that person. God, thank you for that church, the church of the Thessalonians. I’m so thankful for them.

Then, he says, “Constantly mentioning you in our prayers.” So he’s not just thanking God for them continually. Always is the word he uses, but then he says, “I’m constantly mentioning you in our prayers.” Again, just picture Paul’s prayer life. He’s constantly talking to God about the Thessalonians. I just want to encourage you to think, who are you praying like this for? Who in your prayer life are you always thanking God for, just thanking God over and over and over again? Obviously, we can’t thank God enough.

We think about what Paul’s written in other places, Colossians 2, abounding in thanksgiving, but specifically abounding in thanksgiving for other people. So thanking God always for certain people, for specific people in our lives, in the world, in the church, and constantly mentioning them to God. There should be people in our lives that we are constantly mentioning to God and that we are always thanking God for based on this pattern of prayer in 1 Thessalonians 1:2.

1 Thessalonians 1:2 Encourages Us to Thank God for the People He Has Put in Our Lives

So, I just want to encourage you to think today, who do you want to thank God for specifically today in ways that lead to thanking God a lot for those people? Then, who do you constantly mention in your prayers? Is there anybody God’s leading you to pray for, to constantly mention to him that you’re not constantly mentioning to him right now? I pray that the Spirit of God will lead us and guide us to thank God for people like this and to constantly mention people like this.

Oh God, teach us to pray. We want to pray like we see you praying. Jesus, we think about you constantly mentioning your disciples to the Father. We love the glimpse that we received in John 17 and to your prayer life, Jesus, when you were on this earth praying for your disciples and praying for us, even thinking about texts in your Word that talk about how you are constantly interceding for us.

God, we thank you for the intercession of Jesus on our behalf that is constant. So, we pray that you would help us to be constant intercessors for others, for people close to us, how to help us to constantly mention the people who are closest to us that we love the most, to constantly mention them to you, to constantly be praying for them, and to constantly be thanking you for them.

This Verse Encourages Us to Intercede for those Close to Us

God, we pray that you’d fill our minds with people that we’re thanking you for all the time and that we’re interceding for all the time, and not just people who are close to us, but maybe people who are far from us who you put on our hearts to thank you for and to pray for, and even people we don’t know, and then, God, certainly, for people who don’t have anyone praying for them right now.

As we pray continually on this podcast for unreached people in the world, God, we realize we’re praying for people who don’t have others around them to intercede for them because they don’t know any Christians. They don’t know anybody who’s in Christ.

Prayer for the Belide People

God, as we pray today for the Belide people of Indonesia, 87,000 of them, this Muslim people group, God, we intercede right now. We thank you for the Belide people.

God, we thank you for these men and women and children made in your image. We thank you for your grace in them, and we pray for them right now. God, please hear our cries on behalf of the Belide people and answer, cause your grace to made known among them, cause your gospel made known among them, send out laborers to the Belide people of Indonesia. Please, oh God, for their salvation, we’re asking for this. We pray that we would be constant in our prayers for unreached people like them.

Oh God, teach us to pray according to your Word, specifically in 1 Thessalonians 1:2. Even as I think about the people who listen to this podcast, God, I thank you for them, and I pray for your blessing on them today. In Jesus’ name, we pray all these things. Amen.