BLESSINGS FROM THE LORD

Can I pray for you in any way?

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

But the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one.

2 Thessalonians 3:3

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

The Word of God never ceases to amaze me. No other book possesses the power found within its content. No other book comes to life and changes you in some way spiritually as it does.

As a case in point, I offer you just one single verse today which is comprised of just 17 words. It will serve as the backdrop for an entire message and teach us about three amazing blessings we receive from the Lord. Look again at what the Apostle Paul writes to the Christian believers in Thessalonica in the third chapter of his second letter:

But the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one.

Paul is writing these words shortly after having been in Thessalonica, bringing the Gospel there and helping make the very disciples of Jesus he now was writing to. The Apostle understood the challenges the church would go through, both external threats as well as the attempts for false teaching to try and infiltrate sound salvation doctrine.

And so he writes to his brothers and sisters in Christ to caution them, encourage them, and continue to instruct them. As we see in today’s verse, he also seeks to remind them about the Lord they love and serve, and in doing so, he reminds us as well.

Specifically, here are three qualities that all Christians believers are blessed to have in the Lord:

1. He is faithful.

The Lord is faithful.

In the third chapter of the Book of Lamentations, we find the prophet Jeremiah proclaiming why every single believer never need doubt the trustworthiness and reliability of the Lord blessing them, not just some of the time but every single day. He writes:

Yet I call this to mind, and therefore I have hope:

Because of the Lord’s faithful love we do not perish, for His mercies never end. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness! Vv.21-23

This verse has been a rich joy and comfort for Christians for the ages and inspired a great hymn, Great is Thy Faithfulness, which holds these words in its chorus:

Great is Thy faithfulness

Great is Thy faithfulness

Morning by morning new mercies I see

All I have needed Thy hand hath provided

Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me

Indeed, in the Lord we find all we could ever hope for and all we could ever need. He is our great Deliverer, Savior, and Provider, and there is never a time that we call on Him that He isn’t there. We can always depend on Him because He’s perfectly dependable.

No one else is like that in our life. No one...and we need to see this as a great blessing each and every day.

2. He is our source of strength.

He will strengthen you.

Life can be a grind, right?

Between work, home, family, and maybe recreation, we seem to always have trouble finding enough hours in the day to get things done and the energy to do them. And when we throw inevitable hardships or adversities into the mix, it only serves to challenge our already thin-stretched selves to the limit. Sometimes, we ever wonder if we can make it.

In these times, and they come regularly, it’s a great comfort to know that we have a divine, supernatural power source we can always tap into as believers. For we know the Lord walks alongside us through all times of life, good and bad, ever ready to give us what we need to serve Him and others while persevering through life’s difficulties.

The prophet Isaiah understood this and shared the following words in the fortieth chapter of his book, reminding us to turn to the Lord for the energy to persevere through the tough times:

Do you not know? Have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and His understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.

Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. Vv.28-31

What a great encouragement this is for us!

For no matter what life brings, all we need to do is hope in the Lord and He will renew our strength so that we might “soar on wings like eagles” and “run and not grow weary or faint”. Let us always remember this blessing the Lord provides and remember He is always faithful to give it when we need it.

3. He protects us from Satan.

He will...protect you from the evil one.

Life is hard enough on its own as we deal with the trials and tribulations it can bring but then we have to deal with the attacks of Satan who never gives up in his attempts to take down every good and perfect thing God has done or is trying to do. This includes every one of His beloved believers. Peter put it this way:

Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 1 Peter 5:8

The evil one is never going to give up. I have lived more than 63 years now and he still comes after me regularly, even though I commit to putting on the full armor of God each and every day (Ephesians 6:11-17). For like a dedicated fisherman who will go out every day, even if they come back empty handed, so too does the devil put his proverbial bait in the water daily to see if he can hook a believer and haul him or her into sin.

Thanks be to our Lord that He is our great Defender and protector who not only equips us spiritually to guard ourselves but stands watch on all fronts around our life. All we need to do is stay connected with Him for there is no greater security system we can subscribe to, one that is always faithfully present and ready, twenty four hours a day, 365 days a year.

And so there you have it. Three amazing blessings that the Thessalonian Christians and all other believers find through maintaining trust in the Lord.

He is faithful.

He is our source of strength.

and

He protects us from the schemes of Satan.

Brothers and sisters, be encouraged by all of these truths today and every day.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.