I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day. 2 Timothy 1:3
Some people have a very short prayer list. Take for example the man who prayed thusly: ‘Lord, bless me, my wife, our son, his wife, us four, no more, amen’. I surely hope your prayer list is not that short! But how do people make it onto our prayer list? Some are there by nature, family members whose spiritual, physical, and social needs we are intimately aware of. Others are there by virtue of friendships, work relationships, and community contact. Yet others are on the list because we share the Assembly fellowship with them. Some will be there because of our responsibility to pray for the Lord’s servants and missionaries, for government leaders and those in authority, and for Christians who are under persecution in various places. Now, taking into consideration all of the people on your prayer list, how many do you thank God for, that they are on your list? Our text today marks Paul’s thankfulness that he could pray every day for Timothy. This should serve to show us that our prayers for others are a blessing for ourselves as well as a responsibility toward them.
Consider the people we pray for to be saved, our loved ones, the loved ones of others in the Assembly, and people who are attending meetings or who have been invited. How thankful we ought to be that we can still pray for them, that they are still in the flesh and able to hear and respond to the Gospel message! With thankfulness, we pray for those who preach the Gospel and who witness to the lost. How wonderful that with all of the great need, these dear folks have the exercise and ability to go forth into the harvest.
While taking the needs of our loved ones before the Lord, we ought to first of all thank Him for all who are dear to us. Similarly, we ought to also give thanks for all of the saints who are part with us in the fellowship of the Assembly. For something about each one, we should practice giving thanks to God as we pray for them.
We find it easy to complain about our government and our leaders, and it is true that there are things to be concerned about. But would we be willing to trade our government for that of some of the more repressive and violent countries of the world? Of course not! Then let us give thanks for those who are in authority, and appreciate what we have even as we pray for them.
We always including thanksgiving to God in our prayers, thanksgiving for who God is and what He has done for us. But we should also include thanksgiving for the ones for whom we are praying. – Jim MacIntosh