¹¹Now may our God and Father Himself and Jesus our Lord direct our way to you . . .

Prayer became the apostle Paul. It was not an ornament displayed for all to admire in him, but it well suited a man captured by the idea of God’s grace. Captured by, enamored with, embraced by, immersed in, engulfed by, transformed by grace. It defined him and his preaching. He preached the grace of God and he lived the grace of God. And now, he who once sought out Christians to persecute them for their faith, now sought them out to build them up in their faith. So his prayer that the Lord would direct him back to the Thessalonians was very understandable.

His short, simple prayer affords us an inspired insight into godly praying. This is not all there is to prayer, for who could say everything about prayer? Even the Lord, when asked by His disciples to teach them to pray, gave them an outline example (Matt. 6:9–13), not a dissertation on everything we need to know about prayer. Likewise, here we can gain a few nuggets of insight into the vastly important subject.

Prior to asking the Lord for direction, Paul expressed his gratitude, which was his common practice. This is significant in light of what he wrote to the Romans, that the first step away from God is not honoring Him or giving Him thanks (Rom. 1:19a). That seemingly innocuous step leads to futile thinking and foolish hearts (Rom. 1:19b). Thus Paul’s prayer habit was to put gratitude before request. We ought to follow his example.

While the apostle has just explained, in the previous verse, that he earnestly prayed night and day that he could return to Thessalonica, here in our text he uses what might be considered a more polite form of prayer. He employs a common form used in blessings, “May God do such and such . . .” The idea is not that there is any doubt in God’s ability or willingness, but such an approach takes a humbler tack, recognizing God’s sovereignty and our submission to Him. In the previous verse he tells them about his prayer, but in this verse he is actually praying and putting it into writing. There is even a hint of blessing, in that an answer to this request would be indeed a blessing to both them and him.

Further, he addresses “our God and Father Himself” and “Jesus our Lord” but uses a singular verb form (not seen in the English but evident in the Greek). This may indeed point to the unity of the two distinct individuals, Father and Son. But in terms of prayer, we see that Paul feels comfortable praying to both the Father and the Son. Such is acceptable in approaching God.

Lord, teach me to pray more effectively and in a way that honors You.