Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
When was the last time you felt ENCOURAGED by God? What words did you hear / what sight did you see / what music or meditation drew your mind and heart to a place of celebration and great joy… that could only have come into your soul from God?
You and I live at a time in history when a great deal of energy and resources are being spent to help people find happiness and joy, because we live in a world full of pain and suffering, right? Yet have you noticed the tremendous difference between God given encouragement or contentment and the world provided, momentary happiness? With the closing paragraphs of Paul’s second letter to his Christian friends living in very difficult times in Thessalonica, Paul urges them to grasp the magnitude of this: “May our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God our Father, who loved us and by His grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you…” (2 Thess. 2:16,17)
Do you see it my friends? GOD, the Creator of our universe and our creator knows you and me so well HE knows exactly what will encourage us at the very deepest level in life. Do you believe that? Paul frequently found himself simply overwhelmed by the miracles of God, the Creator of our universe, reaching to angry Saul the Pharisee, on the road to Damascus. Saul’s intent was to find and eliminate any people who believed in and followed Jesus! Now that is quite a remarkable life mission, but did you know many people today have that same objective in life?
What amazed Paul was that God didn’t simply strike him dead on that road, or blind him for the rest of his life. (Acts 9) Rather God’s grace and love for that angry Pharisee was so outrageous, Jesus actually appeared to Saul and invited him to know Jesus personally; experience Jesus’ life transforming salvation; be filled with God’s Holy Spirit; and live the rest of his life on the most remarkable adventure with Almighty God he could have ever imagined!
Pause. Does anything about God overwhelm you, move you to trembling and tears, as you contemplate His love for you; His kindness rather than condemnation extended to you; His patience and promises with you? Do you often think about WHAT type of person you’d be without God, or how painful this world would be for you if God abandoned you? When Paul thought about those things it moved him to write encouragement like this: “The Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one.” (2 Thess. 3:3) Can you imagine how that sounded to discouraged Christians suffering great persecution? Paul could make that promise because he had lived it day in and day out, as we’ve seen while we’ve traveled with him on his two missionary journeys, thus far. (Acts 13-18) Is that your experience also, my friends?
As I dig into these closing paragraphs in Paul’s letter, I think I’ve found some secrets to Paul’s joy and encouragement from God. May I show you two?
First... protect yourself from the influence of those who will steal your joy and discourage you.
Paul writes: “Keep away from every believer who is idle and disruptive…” In fact, I see Paul mentions those people three times in his two letters! (1 Thess. 5:14; 2 Thess. 3:6; 3:11) The alternative behavior which Paul urges is this: “As for you brothers and sisters, never tire of doing what is good.” (2 Thess. 3:13) Now friends, it should not be difficult for us to put those two opposing lifestyles in contrast with each other. It should be easy for us to imagine in great detail what those opposite lifestyles LOOK like, SOUND like and what we FEEL like when we are with those two very different types of people... right?
Secondly… Paul urges us to carefully follow the leading of the Holy Spirit of God into places and times that will nourish our souls.
I see that in 2 Thess. 3:5 “May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance.” And in 3:16 “Now may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you.” Have you discovered what happens when we make it our ambition to honor Jesus Christ at all times with every aspect of our lives? When we refine our ability to discern the leading of the Holy Spirit and we joyfully embrace the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives.
Now when you and I live like that, my friends, not only will we find great fulfillment, contentment and joy in life…we will BE a great encouragement to every person our lives touch, and that can make a big difference in any family, any neighborhood, any church or business, or group of people.
Wow, Paul’s two letters to the Thessalonian Christians are very powerful and I’m grateful you’ve taken time to look at them closely with me. The “lessons learned” notes at the link below will be very helpful to you as will a wonderful worship song, and I’ll meet you here again tomorrow!
Today’s Scripture: 2 Thess. 3.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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