We wrote yesterday about the importance of work AND word, and here’s an extraordinary prayer in 2 Thessalonians that I hadn’t seen before:

Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you, (2 Thessalonians 3.1, ESV)

Wow: “that the word of the Lord speed ahead and be honored.” What a thing to pray for! I checked some other translations: 

• KJV: “free course and be glorified”

• LSB: “spread rapidly and be glorified”

• NIV: “spread rapidly and be honored”

• MSG: “take off and race through the country to a groundswell  of response”

It complements what Paul wrote to the Colossians:

…the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth… (Colossians 1.5, 6, ESV, emphasis mine)

The sower sows the Word…But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” (Mark 4.14, 20, ESV)

It’s about the Word. Good things happen when it speeds ahead and is honored. Bad things happen when it doesn’t. We may look at that in the next day or two. In the meantime, am I honoring the Word and doing my part to spread it?