1-2 Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honoured,(glorified) as happened among you, and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. For not all have faith. 3 But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one. (evil) 4-5 And we have confidence in the Lord about you, that you are doing and will do the things that we command. May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ. 2 Thessalonians 3:1-5 English Standard Version

The apostle Paul's letters are full of prayers for others, as well as requests for prayer for himself and his fellow workers. He obviously placed much value on prayer. In the last verse of Chapter 2 he said: “Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.” That was a prayer for the believers at Thessalonica to experience the comfort that only God can give in difficult times, and for them to be made even more firm in their faith. What does he now ask them to pray for on his behalf in vs 1-2?

That’s surely a prayer that all ministers of the gospel and missionaries should be wanting people to pray on their behalf. It's a prayer for God's word to be welcomed by those who hear it. It wasn't a prayer for personal success and praise, but a sincere request that the gospel would be seen for the wonderful message it really is as it declares the glory of God, and the grace shown to sinners through the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a prayer that should often be on our lips.

And we see that he also asks them to pray that God would rescue him and his fellow workers from those who mean them harm. Strange as it may seem, the message of God's love and mercy, and of His gift of eternal life, is often met with hatred in the hearts of those who want nothing to do with Jesus Christ. It happened to Jesus Himself. Even though they knew He had raised a man named Lazarus from the dead, and done many other miracles, we are told that “the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that anyone who found out where Jesus was should report it so that they might arrest Him”, and that they “made plans to kill Lazarus as well, for on account of him many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and believing in him.” (John 11:57 & 12:10) Once again, this is a prayer we need to pray often for missionaries, and for Christians living in countries where they are often attacked.

What does vs 3 tell us about why Paul placed such value on prayer?

It's not because he thought that the act of prayer is some sort of spiritual magic charm, but because our prayers are directed to the One who IS ABLE to guard us against evil people, and from evil itself. In what's often called 'The Lord's prayer', Jesus encouraged us to pray “lead us not into temptation (or testing), but deliver us from the evil one.” (Matthew 6:13) This doesn't mean we won't ever meet up with hard times on the way, but Christians can be sure that God will be with them in their trials and will save them through such trials.

Verses 4-5 show that Paul was confident that the Thessalonian Christians would take his words to heart – that they would pray both for him and for themselves, and that they would seek to be faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ. But even then he expresses that in prayer. What does he pray in those verses?

He asks God to work in their hearts. The prayer could be seen either as asking God to turn their affections towards His tremendous love for them, and to Jesus who kept so steadily on the path of doing God's will - or it could be asking that their love for God would increase more and more, and for them to want to imitate the steadfast way Jesus served the Father. Either way, it’s a prayer well worth praying for our own lives. We need God to 'direct our hearts'. Our hearts can be so fickle and we can be so easily distracted from following Christ. That's why prayer should be something we greatly value. It’s the way we cry out to God for His blessing on the progress of the gospel, as well as for His protection upon ourselves and our fellow believers. It’s the way we ask God to make His word alive in our heart as well as in our head.