We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly  mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. [1 Thessalonians 1:2-3]

There are three areas of strength in the Thessalonian church which Paul thanks God for. By extension, we could say that these are three areas in our own churches that we should be immersing in prayer.

• The work of faith
• The labor of love
• The steadfastness of hope

When it comes to praying for our churches, what more do we have to say? The work of faith is for clarity and relevance of teaching, the labor of love is the effort of sharing the love of Jesus through actions and deeds, and the steadfastness of hope is the anchor of Jesus’ vision to keep us going in the other two. Lose any one of the three and the church will falter.