This morning I'd like us to turn our Bibles to 2 Thessalonians. It's been a little while since we've been there. Appreciate Brother Shaw and Brother Houghton as they brought the Word of God from this pulpit the last couple of weeks. And hopefully it was an encouragement and a joy and a challenge to you as it was to me. If we were to ask you this question, what would be on the top of your list? What are the top 10 issues facing today's church? What would be at the top of your list? A lot of lists. They have the famous top 10 on some of the TV shows. And what would be the top 10 issues facing today's church in 2005? Lifeway Christian Resources surveyed 1,300 church leaders to come up with a list of 10 of the top issues facing today's church. Now, the issues that they came up with through this survey were very diverse, anywhere from homosexuality to abortion to having divorces and divorced families. But I think the very top five are very telling to us. But I want you to think about what might be the very first on your list. This is what they came up with. Number five, top issue was doctrine. Doctrine, the teaching, people understanding what they believe about what the Bible says. That was number five. Number four. The fourth top issue facing today's church was that of evangelism. I think we could certainly agree with that. The decline among Christians in personally sharing the gospel to others. The number three top issue facing today's church was that of leadership. The need, as they explained it, for clear biblical vision and direction by church leaders. The number two top issue was that of discipleship, or the need for involvement of every believer in being continually transformed into the image of Christ. And we need that, don't we? That is a major issue. But the number one issue that they, 1,300 individuals being surveyed, said was the number one issue, what was on your list, their number one issue was that of prayer. Prayer. the need for more ongoing, passionate prayer in both personal and church life. The number one issue was prayer. One of the survey participants, Gary Butler, said it this way. In order for today's church to remain strong in the midst of an evil society, it must be a praying church. If we as believers want to see the same mighty move of God that the early church saw, we must pray just as the early church prayed. Show me a praying church, and I will show you a victorious church. The number one issue of 1,300 people was that of prayer. Is this one of the top issues in your life as a Christian? Is this one of the top issues in our church this morning? Why do we pray? What gets us and motivates us to get on our knees before God and spend time, an ample amount of time, quality as well as quantity, to pray before God? What is it that brings us to prayer? A lot of times, the reasons why we pray is because of the problems and the pressures we face. And we ought to. As we mentioned this morning in our Scripture reading from James 5, it says that if any is afflicted, what? Let him Pray. So there are times in our life when we experience problems, when we experience pressures. We need to pray. That's a good time to pray. In fact, that's one of the times that God gets us to pray is during those turbulent times in our life. When it's our personal life, when we have sins and problems in our job, when we're not getting along with our boss, when we're having interpersonal conflicts with people that we work with, These are times when we say, God, I need you. These are times when we come before God and say, I need to pray to you. A lot of times when we have family problems, when we realize that we're not getting along with our spouse like we once did, or we're not getting along with our children like we once did, or our children are strained and they're doing things that they're not supposed to be doing, what do we do? We resort finally to prayer. Sometimes we can just go on and on with these problems and pressures. And during those times, it seems like the reason why we pray is because we feel like we have a real purpose for prayer, don't we? We feel like we have a reason to get on our knees before God and ask Him to do some mighty works in our lives. And I think that that's an important question, why do we pray? But I think a bigger question, and even more important question for us to ask ourselves, is not why we pray, but why and when do we not pray? Think about the times of dearth in our prayers, in our prayer life. What brings us to the point where we stop praying before God? Is there not a purpose for prayer? Sometimes we think and say that life is just going on great. I've got a good job. My family's going well. Things in the church are going well. We've got all these good things in our life. And a lot of times we get so filled up with the good things in life that we forget to pray. Why else do we not pray? Sometimes there's sin in our life that we feel shamed even to take before God. We say, I have no right to enter into the presence of God. And that's true. But the fact is, Jesus Christ came into this world so that we can't have access to the Father through prayer. Is there not a purpose for prayer all the time, every time? If you remember in 1 Thessalonians, when Paul was writing to them, in chapter 5, verse 16, you may have it there on your page, he said, Rejoice evermore, and then pray without ceasing. There is to be a continual heart of prayer from the people of God to God Himself. Why? Because there's a purpose. There's a purpose for prayer. Here, we come to the close of 2 Thessalonians 1, and Paul knew that this young, persecuted, struggling church needed prayer. If there was any purpose for prayer for this church, this was it. That they were going through a hard time. In fact, if you look back at chapter 1, verse 4, Paul says this about them. Paul, Silas, and Timothy says, that we ourselves glory in you and the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure. We would have thought they needed prayer. We think of our own lives and our own troubles and our own pressures, and we think, boy, we need prayer. The people that we prayed for this morning, they need prayer. Is there not always a purpose for prayer? So what did Paul do? In verse 11 it says, wherefore also, because you need prayer, wherefore also we pray always for you. Paul prayed for them because he needed to pray for them and there was a purpose for his prayer. But how did Paul pray for them? If you've ever heard Paul Harvey and the rest of the story, I love those things on the radio, and it'll give you a little ditty at the very beginning. And I remember many times as I'm traveling home from work, I would have the radio on and I'd be listening to this, and I would even get close to my house, and either I would just drive a little bit further around the neighborhood so I could catch it all, or I would stop there and just stand in the driveway and listen to what the rest of the story was, because I didn't want to be left hanging. And that's what we have here in verses 11 and 12. Paul says in verse 11, we pray always for you. Now that's part of the story. But what was the rest of the story? What exactly did Paul pray for these persecuted, struggling Christians in this church? It will surprise you what he prayed for. Because He didn't just pray a laundry list of needs. He didn't pray for their physical condition, their physical welfare. Look at what He prayed for them. Verse 11, Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling. and that He would fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the faithful work with power. And so that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and ye in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. the prayer and the purpose of prayer that we just read, when I first thought about that, I figured out the title for this message automatically. What a way to pray! Do we pray like that? If we would have heard the prayer requests of this church, we would have immediately said, God, alleviate the pressure that they're facing. God, remove the persecution from that poor, struggling church. God, we know that they have this problem and this problem, this problem, this problem. Lord, relieve them from their afflictions. That's not what Paul did. Paul says here, I'm praying always for you. And then he gives some of the great purposes of prayer. The great reasons behind prayer. The great reasons and purposes why we should pray. No matter what situation we find ourselves in. Because prayer goes beyond our own needs. Prayer goes beyond our own problems and pressures and struggles. Prayer goes beyond some of the petty things that we pray for, though God does care for those. But prayer goes beyond that because there is great purpose in prayer. Paul, Silas and Timothy did not just pray for their temporary physical needs. He prayed in this way for their eternal and spiritual needs. We see some great lessons about prayer in the first phrase, wherefore also we pray always for you. We see that his prayer was persistent. He prayed always for them. That ought to characterize our prayer life. We ought to pray without ceasing. We ought to pray always. We ought to make sure that there is a constant form of communication before God, always ready to speak to Him, no matter what we're facing, whether it's good, bad, indifferent. We ought always be ready to pray persistently, but as prayer was also, as we see here, personal. We pray always for you. Do we pray personally for the people within our church, the people within our families, or do we just pray general prayers? Paul prayed specific, personal prayers for this church, and we ought to as well. A while back, challenged you all to get your church directory and write down the names of the people within that church on a prayer list and go through, and from time to time, as prayer requests are given on Sunday mornings or Wednesday nights, you would jot down those prayer requests and spend some time praying for each other. Why? Because it's a personal investment in the lives of one another. You wonder, how can I help this person? How can I get to know this person better? How is it that I can really minister? It's through prayer, personal, persistent prayer. But then we also see, and this is going to be the greatest part of this message, was that Paul, Silas' and Timothy's prayer was also purposeful. He sets before us three purposes of this prayer for these Christians. And these purposes ought always to be the purpose of our prayer. Maybe not the substance of our prayer, but the very purpose, the very core, the very reason why we're entering into the presence of God that day to pray. The first purpose of His prayer that we see in verse 11 was for the people of God. He says, wherefore also we pray always for you, here's the first purpose, so that our God would count you worthy of this calling. What calling? The calling to be a Christian. The calling from God to be out of this world unto Him. It is a prayer for the people of God to be approved by God. It is a prayer for the people of God to be approved by God. Now, how can God's people be approved by God? It is only through God's consideration. That's on your message guide if you have them. It is by God's consideration. The phrase, to count you worthy, is a very important phrase. Because here's some facts about our worthiness before God. The first fact is that we are not worthy of God and His grace. There is not a single person that is in this world today, or who has ever walked the face of this world today, except for Jesus Christ, who is worthy of God and His grace. None of us are worthy. And that is why it is important for God to count us worthy. And that is why we need to pray for each other, because we realize we cannot make ourselves worthy of God and His grace. And that's the second fact. Not only are we not worthy of God and His grace, but we cannot make ourselves worthy of God and His grace. There's nothing you can do, nothing I can do, to make myself worthy in the sight of God. Coming to church does not make you worthy in the sight of God. Actual praying prayers does not make you worthy in the sight of God. Going out and handing out tracts doesn't make you worthy in the sight of God. Here's a third fact. It is only God who can make us worthy to stand before Him. and to please Him in all these things. It is only God who can make you and make me to stand worthy in His presence, and that is why this prayer is so important. And that is why the purpose of this prayer, what this purpose was all about. It was a prayer for God to continue to do His work in these people, in these Christians, to make them so He could count them worthy. This is what that prayer purpose is all about. We pray that our God would count you worthy. And in order for us to be counted worthy, He has to continue to do His work in our life to make us worthy. And how does He do that? Through the power of Jesus Christ. It's not what I have done, it is what He has done and what He will do in me and through me that makes me worthy so God can count us worthy. God will consider you worthy if you're growing in your faith and knowledge in Jesus Christ. You see, Paul was not just praying for the physical needs of these people. That's important. But he was praying for God to do His continual, sanctifying, refining, purifying work in their life so that they could be worthy, because God would make them worthy. Now what were they to be worthy of? What was God, what was this prayer for? To count you worthy of what? Of this calling. What calling? That word this, if you have your authorized versions, it's in parentheses. It's not there in the original. So let's move that out and read it. That our God would count you worthy of calling. It is a specific calling. It is a calling that God has placed on every child of His. This prayer is for God to make his people what he called his people to be. Do you know what God has called you to be? God has called you to be a 4-H kind of Christian. This week has been the 4-H fair. We have a 4-H parade, I think, this afternoon. But as I was thinking through this calling and doing some research about this calling, do you realize that the scripture gives 4-H's? And I didn't have to make these up. Usually I like to alliterate things, and I didn't have to do this. It was easy. The Holy Spirit did it for me here in our English text. And what we have here is a 4H calling from God to people who are Christians. It is a hopeful calling. You realize that God has called you to a hopeful calling? Listen to what it says in Ephesians 118. You don't need to turn to these verses, but listen. That ye may know what is the hope of this calling, of His calling. God has called you to a hopeful calling. Now, apart from Jesus Christ, we have no hope. And because of our sin, there is no reason for hope. In fact, we are unworthy to have hope. What we deserve is death. What we deserve is discouragement and to have no hope. But God has called us to a hopeful calling, and because of His work in us and through us, He makes us worthy of this hopeful calling. He makes us worthy to hope in Him. Do you pray for one another within this church that God would make them worthy of the hope that we have? I'm not worthy of the hope I have. I know I'm not. But by God's grace and by God's continual work, He will make me worthy and then count me worthy. This was the purpose of Paul's prayer. Is this how we pray for each other? That God would do His continual, refining work, and maybe that is to not remove that physical pressure from that life. But that God perhaps would continue to use those pressures to refine them, and as the song says, that they will come forth as gold. This is a hopeful calling. But it is a hopeful calling that God will make us worthy of. The second H is that it is a high calling. Philippians 3.14, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. The high calling of God. In Psalms, when it talks about the knowledge of God, the psalmist says that that knowledge of God is too high. I cannot attain unto it. Do you realize that the calling of God on your life is so high, so exalted, that we cannot do anything to be worthy of it? Except cling to Jesus Christ. who makes us worthy of it. And as we cling to Jesus Christ, He lifts us up to where He is and we can enjoy the honor of that high calling that God has given to us. The third age is a holy calling. Second Timothy 1.9, who has saved us and called us with an holy calling. What is holiness? It is separation from sin unto God. A separation from world and worldliness unto Him and His purity. That is what holiness is. I can't be holy. apart from God doing His work in me. And this is why we need to pray for each other. We need to pray that God will do His work to make us worthy of this holy calling. He says, Be holy, for I am holy. We can only be holy if He instills in us and strengthens us and empowers us to be holy. I need to pray for you that God will make you worthy of your holy calling. That God would make you holy, for He is holy. I need to pray. That should be the purpose of my prayer. And that should be the purpose of your prayer for me and for each other. The fourth H. It's a hopeful calling, a high calling, a holy calling. And praise the Lord, it's a heavenly calling. Hebrews 3.1, Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus. You know, heaven is a place that none of us are worthy of. It says in the Bible that there's nothing that speaks a lie or abominations. There's nothing that can enter into the presence of God in heaven. We're not worthy of that. But God can make us worthy of that. And that was the purpose of Paul's prayer. Imagine what? Imagine what the people in Thessalonica were thinking when they heard of Paul's prayer for them. Paul, couldn't you have prayed that God would just kind of just take away some of the suffering for a little while? Couldn't you pray, Paul, that God would just strike down dead those Jews that are trying to persecute us? Paul, couldn't you just pray that some of this physical suffering might just go away? Paul, couldn't you pray that my financial situation could improve a little bit better? Paul, why did you pray that God would continue to do His refining work in my life? Why? Because that was the most important thing in their life to pray for. And so it is in our life. It is for the people of God to be approved by God. Is that why you pray? For God's people? The second purpose of his prayer was not just for the people of God to be approved, but in the last part of verse 11, it was for the plan of God to be accomplished. For the plan of God to be accomplished. Let's continue on in verse 11. I pray always for you, he says, so that our God, first of all, would count you worthy of His calling. Secondly, so that God would fulfill or complete all the good pleasure or the good will of His goodness and the work of faith or His faithful work with power. Another purpose here is for God's plan to be accomplished and to be fulfilled. We understand what this means because we know the Lord's Prayer. We don't say it often enough, I don't think, but when you go to Matthew 6 and you go to the Gospel of Luke and you hear the Lord's Prayer, what does Jesus say in that Lord's Prayer? He says, Thy will be done. That's His Prayer. That God's will will be done. Now here's a question for you. Is there any chance for God's will not to be done? No, there's absolutely no chance for God's will not to be done. God's will will be done. It will be accomplished. Why? Because it's His will. He's sovereign. He accomplishes His will. Look at the book of Revelation. The book of Revelation is not a choose-your-own-adventure series. I remember reading those books when I was a child, where you would go to a book, and then as you were reading a particular passage, at the end of this, it would give you a choice. If you would decide to do one thing, go to this page. If you would decide to do another thing, go to this page. And you could actually choose your own ending to the story. The Bible isn't like that. God's will will always be accomplished. Because we know from a fact that Revelation says so. We see God's will ultimately coming to pass. This old earth, this old heaven will pass away, and God will create a new earth and a new heaven, and it will last forever because God's will will always be accomplished. So, when we pray, Thy will be done as the Lord prayed Thy will be done, what does that mean? He's praying here in verse 11. pretty much the same thought, that you, God, would fulfill all the good pleasure of your goodness. If God's will will always be done, this is not a prayer for God's will to be accomplished as if it's not going to be. But rather, it is a personal prayer of submission to God's will. It is a personal prayer of submission to God's will. And the fact is, as we see in these verses, that God's will is always good. That phrase, good pleasure, is also translated good will in other places in our Bibles. That God will complete His good will. Now why is God's will always good? Well, we have an answer in this verse. It is the good will or the good pleasure of or from His goodness. God's will is always good because God is always good. And this is something that we need to remember. This is a truth. No matter what God chooses to do, no matter what God chooses not to do, it is good and right. No matter what. It's hard for us to swallow sometimes. Why? Because we don't really think that God is always good. But listen to what it says in Deuteronomy. Early on in the Bible, Deuteronomy 32.4, it says, He, referring to God, Jehovah, is the Rock. His work is perfect, for all His ways are judgment. A God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is He. Everything about God. Everything that he chooses to do, everything that he chooses not to do, is good and right. Listen to Psalm 25, verse 8. Good and upright is the Lord. Therefore will He teach sinners in the way. Good and upright is the Lord. When we realize that God is good, and we realize that everything that comes from God, including His will, is good, then when we pray, Thy will be done, we are asking God to take our life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee. Let my will, let that not be done, but let Thy will be done. What did Jesus say in the garden? Jesus Himself, the Son of God, there, pouring out sweats of blood and agony in the garden of Gethsemane, said, Lord, if it be Your will, let this cup pass from me. Then he realized that God's good will, even to allow him suffering in that garden, will be done. And he said, nevertheless, not my will be done, but thy will be done. May your good pleasure from your goodness be fulfilled and completed in me. Now, again, what did the Thessalonians possibly think about this prayer? Wow. You mean to tell me that the pressures and the persecutions and the problems that I'm facing in my life in this church is the result of God's good pleasure from His goodness? Yes. Remember Job? We know that God was in complete control of the situation as the devil was trying to test Job and take him away and get him to the point where he'll curse God and die. Even his wife told him to do that. that God was in complete control of the situation. There was nothing happening to Job that God was not in control of. And it was to the point where Job would say, God, Thy will be done. It was a prayer of submission to His will. We need to realize that God's will is always good because God is always good and therefore we can submit to His will and pray like Jesus prayed, Thy will be done. Is this how we pray? Is this how we pray for God's plan through His will to be accomplished? We know that it will be done, but what about our lives? Are we submissive to it? Are we willing to let God's will change us and make us and do with us whatever He wants? To realize that my life is expendable for Him? That if my life only lasts 29 years like it did for David Brainerd, a young man, And it served for God. It is a life well worth spent. It was a good life. It was a godly life. It was a holy life in service for God. And we would look back at a 29-year-old and say, wow, what a waste. And yet the Indians that were converted as a result of his ministry 200, 300 years ago would say, praise God for that 20-some-year-old man, David Brainerd, because he prayed that God would fulfill the good pleasure of His goodness in His life no matter what He thought it was like. But it wasn't just His will be done according to His plan, but also that thy work be done. He goes on in verse 11 and says that He would also fulfill the work of faith with power. Whereas thy will be done is a prayer of submission to His will, The prayer, Thy work be done, is a prayer of sincerity for His work. Do you want to see God do a work in this life, in my life, and in this church? We need to pray a prayer of sincerity for His work. You see, God's work is always a work of faith, always a work of faithfulness, because His good will and His good work go hand in hand. He is a good God, therefore his work will always be good. But how does this apply to our prayer for God and his will and his work? It is a prayer of sincerities for his work. Do you really want to see God work? Because when God does a work, it is a work of fire and change. If you don't want God to do a powerful work in your life, then don't pray for him, because he does. But if we need God's work in our life and in our church, we need to pray for it in sincerity. We need to pray for it to be done, what it says here, with power or in power, in a clear, powerful way. This is how we ought to pray for God's work to be done. Not, God, just do this if your will be done. If that's how you want to do it, well, let me just resign myself to it. God, I want you to show yourself here. God, I want to show yourself in power, and in effectiveness, in dynamic ways. This is how we ought to pray. When we get on before God on our knees on Wednesday nights at home, wherever we are, we ought to be pouring out our heart and soul to God in sincerity for His work of faith to be fulfilled with power. So many of our prayers are powerless. Because we don't pray in sincerity. We don't pray with passion. We don't pray with just love and tingling sensations down to our back. We need to pray that God will do a mighty work. Because He does. And He will. What a way to pray. Huh? What a way to pray. And the fact is, the circumstances of that church was immaterial to Paul. He was more concerned that God would do a mighty work in and through that church. than for God to just release the pressures that they were facing. Prayer is a part of God's plan. Prayer is His will. Prayer is His work. And this is how we ought to pray for God's plan. In submission to His will and in sincerity for His powerful work. That ought to be the purpose of our prayer. And that is why heartless prayers fall on deaf ears. We need to pray for God's work and power. and in sincerity. We find a third purpose for prayer also in chapter 1, verse 12. Not just for the people of God to be approved by God, not just for the plan of God to be accomplished, but third here, for the place of God to be acclaimed, to be glorified. Verse 12 gives us that third purpose. We pray always for you, verse 12, that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you. and that ye may be glorified in Him, and ye in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ." The greatness of the glory of God is in view in this verse. And it ought to be in view in all of our prayers. Here we find another purpose of prayer. Sometimes we say, well, I don't really feel like praying, or I really don't have anything to pray for. But that is thinking that prayer has a lot to do with you. And the fact is, according to this verse, prayer has more to do with Christ and God than it does with us, because prayer glorifies His name. Prayer glorifies His name. It exalts the name of Jesus Christ. When you pray to God through Jesus Christ, it exalts Him. It glorifies Him. Something amazing happened to me yesterday. Happens every so often. But I really thought about it this morning as I was thinking about this message. And that was my mom called me on the telephone. I thought, wow! She called me. As she and the rest of my family were walking through the cemetery, she thought about me. Now I'm not really sure the correlation between walking in the cemetery and thinking about me is, but she thought about me. And so when she called me to talk to me, she was in effect glorifying me. She was exalting me because I was important to her. That is what prayer is. That is the purpose of our prayer to God is that it's not so much about me and my problems and my persecutions and my pressures. It's about Jesus Christ. And when I pray, it glorifies Him. If for no other purpose, if for no other reason that we pray, we pray to glorify Jesus. And we lift Him up because of prayer. It says here that we exalt that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified. This is why Paul prayed. And what is in a name? What's so important about this name, Jesus Christ, that it is to be glorified? What's in a name? For most of us, it doesn't mean a whole lot. My name is Stephen. It comes from the Greek word stephanos, which is crowned. And so I had a little plaque when I was a child that said, Stephen crowned one. That doesn't mean that I'm American royalty at all. It means not a whole lot, except if you want to apply it in a spiritual sense. I'm crowned by God. But look up some of your names. We have some friends whose last name is Cooper. And we were talking about how we got some of these last names, and I said, well, to my children that, well, Cooper is from someone that used to build barrels. And that has nothing to do with them. They don't build barrels. They're not coopers, but yet they are coopers. What's in a name? When it comes to the name of Jesus Christ, everything is in His name. His name encompasses all that He is. It talks about His person, His position as the Lord. It talks about His perfections. And so when we pray, the purpose of prayer is to glorify Him through His name. That is why we ought to pray, for no other reason. to glorify Him, to lift His name up to heaven. It's not so much about me, but it's about Jesus. And when we properly pray, we put Jesus in His proper place in our life. But then something amazing happens in this verse. A transition. Because not only does prayer glorify His name, but prayer glorifies His namesakes. His children. Christians. We're named after Christ. We're His namesakes. Look at verse 12 again. His purpose was to pray so that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you and ye in Him. God offers you prayer, not just so that you can exalt Jesus, but so that Jesus could glorify You. Now that is a staggering, amazing thought. As you exalt Jesus in His proper place through prayer, He doesn't just leave you down there. He brings you up to be with Him. As you exalt Jesus Christ, He exalts you with Him into the heavenly places. This was Christ's desire when He was on earth. This was, though, one of the reasons why He died on the cross. John chapter 17, we find the high priestly prayer of Jesus to His Father on earth. Listen to what He says. This is part of His prayer. As He prays to His Father that they, referring to Christians, all may be one as Thou, Father, art in Me and I in them. that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me. And listen to this verse, And the glory which Thou gavest Me, I have given them, that they may be one, even as We are. I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect and one, and that the world may know that Thou hast sent me, and hast loved me, and as Thou hast loved me. Father, I will that they also, whom You have given to me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which Thou hast given me." Christ's desire was to glorify sinners. And when we pray, Not only are we exalting the Lord Jesus Christ, but the Lord Jesus Christ is bringing us to be with Him in prayer. We are able to participate with Him in His work and in His will. We are able to enjoy His perfections as we see Him face to face. We are able to enjoy the presence of His glory ultimately. Prayer glorifies Christ and Christians. How is this so? This is not something that is earned. It is something that is given as a gift. It's not based on who we are or what we've done. It's based upon who He is and what He's done. Because as it goes on in verse 12, "...and ye in Him..." Why? "...according to the grace of our God and Lord Jesus Christ." When we pray, we glorify God. and He glorifies us. He brings us to where He is, to the throne of grace, as He calls it in Hebrews 4.16, so that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. What a way to pray. When you pray, are these your purposes in prayer? When you pray for the people of God, you pray that they will become approved to God, that He will count them worthy by making them worthy? Do you pray for their spiritual condition? When you pray, do you pray for the purpose that God's plan will be accomplished? That His will and His work will be done? Of course it's going to be done. But how are you going to be related to His will and His work? Are you going to surrender and submit to it? And are you going to sincerely pray for it to be done in power? And when you pray, is the purpose of your prayer to exalt God in His proper place, to acclaim Him, to adore Him, to glorify Him? And in effect, He does the same with us. In one region of Africa, the first converts to Christianity were very diligent about praying. a story of a lot of our lives. When we first came to know the Lord, we were serious about prayer. In fact, the believers in this African village had their own special place where they went out to pray in solitude. The villagers would reach these outdoor prayer rooms by using their own private footpaths through the brush. And when the grass began to grow over one of these trails, it was evident that the person to whom it belonged was not praying very much. Because these new Christians were concerned for each other's spiritual welfare, a unique custom sprang up. Whenever anyone noticed an overgrown prayer path, he or she would go to that person and lovingly warn, friend, there's grass on your path. Have you forgotten the purpose of prayer? Is there grass on your prayer path? This is one of the top problems in churches, as was mentioned in that survey earlier. The single most important state of a Christian in a church is that of prayer. There's a lot of grass on our path. But when we realize, as Paul gives us, the purpose for prayer, we will start walking down that path more and more frequently, and people will see it, and know it, and recognize the power of God in prayer. We need to begin praying with these purposes today. Pray for the people of God to be approved. Pray for the plan of God to be accomplished. Pray for the very place, the exalted place of God, to be glorified in our lives. With these purposes, go to prayer. Don't just pray a laundry list of different needs and pressures, but pray with purpose and passion and reason. Because in doing so, we glorify God. This is why our prayer meetings ought to be filled. Because it's not about me. It doesn't glorify me if you come to pray in our prayer meeting. You glorify God in our prayer meeting. That's why we pray. That's why we pray. How much purpose do you have to pray?