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In this episode of the PRESS Movement Podcast, we explore Paul's prayer in 2 Thessalonians 1 and what it means to be counted worthy of the calling of God. Writing to a church facing persecution and hardship, Paul doesn't promise easier circumstances. Instead, he prays that God would strengthen them, fulfill the work of faith with power, and glorify Himself through their lives. 

Reagan Porter joins the conversation and highlights the importance of remaining steadfast through difficult seasons. Together, we discuss how faith is strengthened before the battle arrives, why testimonies matter, and how God uses the stories of one generation to encourage the next. A powerful reflection on the PRESS Movement itself reminds us that God often uses painful seasons to produce purpose and bring people into our lives that we never knew we would need. 

The episode also examines the tension between temporary suffering and eternal perspective. While culture encourages comfort and self-preservation, Scripture calls believers to endure, trust God's goodness, and remain faithful even when following Christ is difficult.

Ultimately, this prayer reminds us that God's goal is not merely our comfort—it's our transformation, our endurance, and His glory being revealed through our lives. 

#PRESSMovement #PrayerReachesEverySingleSituation #2Thessalonians #ChristianPodcast #FaithUnderPressure #SteadfastFaith #PrayerLife #BiblicalEncouragement #ChristianGrowth #EndureWithFaith

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Transcript

PRESS means to apply force. When God said PRESS, prayer reaches every single situation. He gave us permission to apply force to every situation that we will go through And in this podcast we are going to learn to apply force to what's applying pressure to us Greetings, everybody. Welcome back to the press movement podcast as we are journeying our way through the New Testament And we're entering a new book today This is our only pit stop in this book. We're journeying to the book of 2 Thessalonians I'm, so excited to see what the Lord will say 2 Thessalonians is kind of dear to my heart Because the trip we recently took to Greece.
 
 Maybe we'll talk about that in a little bit. But first I want us to actually dig into the scripture and to do that. I have a special guest with me.
 
 Hi ray. Hello She's grown up on you guys we recorded an episode about three years ago when she was 10 and We have now seen her Graduate eighth grade. Congratulations, ma'am.
 
 Thank you So she's on her way to high school, but I thank God that she still Has an interest in the things of God. So this is my daughter And we're just going to talk about Second Thessalonians take it from there Reagan So 2 Thessalonians 1 verse 11 states Wherefore also we pray always for you That our God would count you worthy of this calling and fulfill the good pleasure of his goodness In the worth of faith with power that the name of our Lord. Jesus christ may be glorified in you In me in him according to the grace of our God in the Lord Jesus Christ So in the previous book first Thessalonians They highlighted the preparation for the church and now in second Thessalonians.
 
 He speaks on the coming of God And how we must all be prepared and be counted worthy of the calling ahead You know, so I was looking at Thessalonians as well and these two writings history records They're written about a year or two apart And the second book was written to a church that was likely being persecuted I believe that frames a lot of the way paul writes this particular Prayer for them because it is definitely not a scenario where he is saying. Hey, everything's going to be fine He's praying that God be glorified And I found myself having to pray that a lot when i'm not sure how he's going to do it or if it's going to be hard, yes, you can pray it in great times, too, but It seems like you have to remind yourself even more so when there's trouble And in fact, you know Paul even mentions In first Thessalonians one to seven and to you who are troubled rest with us And so there's definitely trouble happening. There's a lot going on but Paul Is talking to this church and you started in which verse? I began in verse 11, I believe Yeah, as he says we pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling What do you take from This prayer itself as you look at him county worthy or even if you want to go beyond that what I take from it is Continuing to remain stable to be always steadfast For what's ahead since they were facing so much persecution And they fell upon their hard times That they must continue to be ready in spite of their current situation In the previous scriptures it talks about faith And I think it's important to highlight that one part of being ready Is having the faith to believe that you're going to make it through the moment That's very true And sometimes the moments come up on you super fast, but that's why even in the down times You learn how to believe a good soldier Good army doesn't waste the times where they're not at war or just relaxing.
 
 It's about constantly being prepared And I've found that if you exercise your faith Before there's a fight When there is a fight Your faith has already grown strong through the exercises before it So you find that no matter what's coming against you in a way Your faith is already prepared So I agree with what you're saying there. I keep going. What else you got? In addition, I would say Hold on to your testimony In verse 10 it states because our testimony among you was believed so one part of Having the faith to be ready Is holding on to something that gives you faith In spite of everything you must hold on to what God's already done to be counted as righteous Yeah, it's interesting because he says it's our testimony among you That was believed And so the testimony you have to believe Sometimes it's not yours to start sometimes it's what you heard about God That lays a foundation in you until you find out who he is When I think about that, I think about parents teaching their children or grandparents teaching their grandchild or their offspring And one generation teaching another The testimonies that go before you are so important.
 
 So Ray In the past have you ever heard a testimony from somebody older than you that really impacted you that you actually remember? One testimony that helped me was actually my own mother's you It's when you had the miscarriages and then the press came I just think of all the people in my life that came through press that also Have helped me got to the point and how I wouldn't be here probably if it wasn't for those Hard times and one thing that really helped me through my mom's story Is how intentional like God's placement is I needed some of the people in the life that came through press that if you don't know She wrote press during a really hard time in her life So that knowing that to everything there is a season That i'm going to make it through this season. Let's me know that i'm okay Wow I actually never knew she was going to say that I promise that was not a paid promotional Fact I could probably low-key cry if I was in the mood to cry Yeah, that's pretty cool It's pretty cool how God uses one testimony to help another generation and he uses other people's stories to encourage us And that he used the Thessalonians as we look at 2 Thessalonians one and ten And so just continuing through it this prayer He said but wherefore also we pray always for you That our God would count you worthy of this calling And feel all the good pleasure of his goodness in the work of faith with power I've learned in life that sometimes what God calls good doesn't feel good But he always has good in it for us When you look at this Reagan, what do you think in verse 11? When I look at verse 11, I see how Someone in this case Paul had to go after people to help them along the process And how God sends people Along in our way to get to his expected end And to have us be counted well worthy of his goodness And how that on our own we may not be able to fulfill it. But with God we can I love how God when you step out on him when you choose to believe him.
 
 He really does testify of himself You don't have to try to be powerful having an audience with God Automatically makes you powerful And if you stick with him and that's really what this prayer is saying to me that you'll Remain that you'll be worthy that you'll fulfill And essentially complete what God has for you He'll testify of himself Our job is to endure sometimes that's easy. Sometimes it's hard But our job is to endure and we endure not for our own selves But as verse 12 says that the name of our Lord. Jesus christ may be glorified in us According to as we are in him And according to the grace of our God and Lord.
 
 Jesus christ Is there anything else you see in this verse Reagan? One thing I would like to add is Philippians 1 21 Where to me to live is christ and to die is gain That sometimes we may have to go through things and how we may have to lay down some things and let some things die and it may feel like We are going through and some things may have to die in us But we are going to make it out and we're going to make it out with his power So it may be hard like we said previously they went through tough times, but it's not going to be for us It's going to be for our gain and it's going to be for crash He said in Luke 17 31 whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it And whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it For us this can sound so counterintuitive That if God was really good if God really cares, why would he let them suffer? Why would he let them go through tribulation? But what I know and what we must remember about God is that he specializes in eternity He's not trying to save us just in the temporary moment. He is working to save us for eternity and so when he starts talking about If you seek to save your life, you'll lose it He's saying basically if you specialize in what's down here, you'll miss what's coming and what's coming is where life really is Because you'll be in him and he is life Whether he allows you experience things down here Or whether he has life waiting for you on the other side of eternity He is still alive And so his goodness can lead us through hard times But we can be okay because he's with us And him in us with us And taking us through it to the other side of this life Is what brings us life victory hope and truly good Any final thoughts on the scripture ray? My final thoughts on this would have to connect to verse 12 According to the grace of our God in the Lord. Jesus I would say Keep having faith For that lead to God power That leads to you being righteous and that leads to you laying down what you need to stay with God.
 
 It does doesn't it? One more question because we got to visit Thessaloniki in November, which I thought was amazing How does having seen the places these scriptures were written to? impact your perception of even reading Thessalonians It impacted my perception because I see where the persecution came from When we were in Greece, we saw a lot of them holding to their previous culture And how in Greece they said they had to stick with what was comfortable and at this time Jesus wasn't comfortable for them and they resented change and also In Greece, they had these huge Temples and in huge coliseums That just supported all their Gods and to have someone come who was quote-unquote lowly Is a new ideal To see that they had to persevere through all their false religions false Gods How hard the grecians would fight that what they had was true It must have been really hard But I can see that it's only through the grace of God that they were able to withstand I agree because what we found is that the culture today is much like the culture that was back then They're very strong in who they are and what they believe even if it's not Scriptural per se and so you do run into a lot of Well, it was always this way or this is what my culture is or this is what my family does and it does it leads to a different kind of compromise because the scripture is not necessarily the final word and it does impact I must say the way I read the scripture because Now when I envision it, I see the water. I see The stones I see the remnants of the city and I realize I am Confident even more so than I was that this book this bible is not a story It's not a history book It is the details of God's relationship with man and how far he will extend his arm to save us And i'm convinced that God wants to know us God cares for us And he gave us this avenue of prayer so that we could know him, too and find out When we call him prayer reaches every single situation you bless i'm blessed you bless we blessed Bye y'all.