2 Thessalonians 1:3-4 and 10-11 - We ought always to thank God for you, brothers, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love every one of you has for each other is increasing. Therefore, among God's churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring………. With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may count you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith. We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul was so encouraging …he was the ultimate prayer warrior. He praised these new converts for their ability to endure and allow the small seed of faith that God planted in their hearts to grow….for their persecution was great. They managed to not only ‘endure’ the religious persecution of that day….but learned how to internalize their faith so love for Christ would grow…and strengthen them. Paul says that he constantly prays for them…so that they may learn to use God’s power to find their calling…their purpose…and continue to preach and teach the gospel…and thus glorify God.
Paul knew the power that hardships have to strengthen our faith…he endured more than most. He managed through some of the roughest times to turn inward and upward to God for his strength…and the power to move forward…to remain in Christ…to love in spite of how we are treated…became as natural as the sunrise each morning. The sun’s heat increases during the day you know…the cool of this morning will disappear quickly as the sun rises. The 62 degrees outside that gave me a wonderful night’s sleep…windows thrown open and breeze blowing sweetly…might cause me to break down and turn on the air conditioner this afternoon….heat rising to 70 degrees!
Made me start thinking about how I was growing….would God count me worthy…am I fulfilling …‘every good purpose’… are ALL my acts …’prompted by faith’…is God glorified in me? Well…my old nature…that trickster of the devil started whispering in my ear all the bad things I had done…reminded me of what little I really do. Jokes on him this morning…cause I know now that I do not earn my salvation…it was a gift…and that gift prompted me to quickly tell Satan to remove himself from my head. …and God started reminding me of the new task he gave me to study his word and write down each morning how I can apply it to the new vessel God is turning me into. Satan’s reminder of my past serves to make me work harder…to read and study more…to learn how to really pray….like Paul.
God I thank you this morning for every hardship you have placed in my life. I thank you for teaching me how to endure these hardships as ways to increase my reliance on you. Help me to be worthy of your calling on my life and keep searching for God’s purpose and will. Thank you for the great gift of salvation that you gave to me…and for all the people you sent to help me accept it. Forgive me Lord for taking so long to get serious about you…help me to set a new course that you would deem as worthy…and grow in love and faith each day. Amen.
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