Wednesday 3 August, 2016

1When Paul and his companions had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. 2As was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3explaining and proving that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead. “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Messiah,” he said. 4Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and quite a few prominent women. 5But other Jews were jealous; so they rounded up some bad characters from the marketplace, formed a mob and started a riot in the city. They rushed to Jason’s house in search of Paul and Silas in order to bring them out to the crowd.a 6But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some other believers before the city officials, shouting: “These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here, 7and Jason has welcomed them into his house. They are all defying Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus.” 8When they heard this, the crowd and the city officials were thrown into turmoil. 9Then they made Jason and the others post bond and let them go.

In this passage we have the recount of Paul’s trip to Thessalonica. His usual custom was to first preach in the Jewish Synagogue. But verse 6 has the most amazing statement. Some Jews who were jealous declared to the city council “Paul and Silas have caused trouble ALL OVER THE WORLD!

Did they really mean All over the world? It may have been just a figure of speech, Paul hadn’t been all over the world, not even the known world, not physically anyway. But for me, this speaks to the battle that is going on in the heavenly realm. Prayers here can have an effect here or in another place even on the other side of the world.

The impact of the believers prayer is not limited by geography.

In Paul’s letters he would say how he had prayed for the many churches he had planted, he prayed for the believers and the effect of his prayers impacted the whole world.

We should be encouraged by this confession from the heavenly realm as to the affect of our prayers, to pray more and our faith encouraged knowing that our God hears our prayers and answers them, no matter who we pray for or where they happen to be.

James 5.16 The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. NLT

Father, thank you that you hear every prayer that we pray, and that you answer them according to your will. Your Word tells us that nothing is to difficult for you, even the distances of the people and situations we pray for.

Written by Andrew Martin