The Prayer Sandwich {1 Thessalonians 5:16-18}

I stumbled upon something recently that has revolutionized my prayer life and I’m <SO EXCITED> to finally be able to share it with you today!! Of course you know that with God nothing happens by accident; I didn’t simply stubble, but God revealed something that has changed me forever! Now where do I start …

It all began when I was teaching a women’s Bible class one morning. I actually planned to talk about I Thessalonians 5:17, but the verse was so small, that I decided to include 16 and 18 with it, for they were good too. I wrote them on the board like this:

Rejoice always,

Pray without ceasing

Give thanks in all circumstances;

for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

During my lesson someone made the comment that, “pray without ceasing” was in the middle of the commands to rejoice and give thanks! (It was a light-bulb moment for me!)

I saw the sandwich!!

While in college, studying for a degree in early childhood education, I was taught that when it came to parent-teacher conferences, we should always sandwich what we wanted the parents to know between two positives! For example:

Your child is such a hard worker!

Even though she’s struggling right now in math

I’m confident she’ll eventually master it with some extra help!

Though, our prayers are completely different from a parent-teacher conference, it suddenly occurred to me that God wants our prayers seasoned with joy and thanksgiving! Do you naturally season all your prayers with joy and thanksgiving?

I hadn’t been! Not always. I usually tended to get straight to the point!

BUT, I also discovered recently that ALL three of these commands here are covered by Paul’s last statement in verse 18, “for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for YOU.” (emphasis mine). These three verses were meant to be kept together!

And the Lord gave me the longest migraine headache of my life to drive home this lesson!! I’d been suffering with the same migraine headache for a week, trying everything I knew to do to try to get rid of it, when finally one night I went straight to bed after dinner because I just didn’t want to deal with the pain any longer.

The Lord woke me during the night at 2AM with the headache still there, and I immediately lay there and began talking to Him, “Well Lord, I’ve tried everything I know to get rid of this headache and it’s still here.”

“Not everything.” was His reply and He reminded me of what He had recently revealed to me in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18. I had to agree that I’ve never thought to rejoice and give thanks for a migraine headache, but I had grumbled and complained and begged for it to be gone A LOT! So, I began praising Him and giving thanks for everything I could think of! There was a party going on in my brain, and the next thing I knew it was morning! I'd fallen back to sleep and now daylight was shining through my windows!

I woke and the headache was still there!! But my whole countenance had changed!! I was so light and joy-FILLED and I was NOT going to allow that headache to keep me down any longer. I got up, dressed and went about my day filled with His Holy Spirit and the headache eventually disappeared, though I can’t tell you when it happened exactly.

Here in 1 Thessalonians, chapter 5, Paul is writing to a new church of young believers, and it seems as though he is quickly trying to write down all these finally instructions for them to follow before he closes the letter and sends it off. Most of what I’ve read about these three verses speaks of the impossibility to keep them! Can we really rejoice always, pray continually, and give thanks in every and all circumstance??

YES! I don’t believe The Lord would have Paul include these commands to this group of young believers, who were facing constant persecution, if they were impossible to follow! I also believe our first clue for how to follow the commands is found in the final words of verse 18. “for this is the will of God… for you.” This is God’s will for all of us, but it’s, “in Christ Jesus” or in other words, through Christ Jesus!! We can't leave Christ Jesus out! 

...For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.We must include Christ Jesus for Paul told us in the letter to the Philippian church that we “can do all things through Christ…”(Phil 4:13)

I have also discovered that by seasoning our constant conversations with God with joy and thanksgiving we are actually speaking truth to our hearts and strengthening our resolve as we pray!! Proving once more that these commands are for OUR BENEFIT, and not God's.But don’t take my word for it, start putting these verses into practice and see for yourselves!