Think about our usual Prayers of the People here. Mostly, what that time ends up being is a time of prayer requests, and most of the time the requests are either for ourselves or for those in our family and close friend group. That’s fine; we’re supposed to bring our needs before God. Eventually, though, we usually expand our vision and pray for people that we don’t know and situations that don’t touch us specifically. We pray for victims of natural disasters, victims and survivors of the latest mass shooting, the homeless, people with the coronavirus, and so on. These are prayers for things that have stirred our hearts but that don’t affect us directly. So what Paul is doing is like that, only with thanksgiving.
Sermon Notes