PUTTING CONFIDENCE IN THE RIGHT PLACE

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

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

We have confidence in the Lord that you are doing and will continue to do the things we command. May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance.

2 Thessalonians 3:4-5

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

Have you ever placed your confidence in someone or something only to have that trust dashed?

Live long enough and you will find it happens all the time, maybe too many times because we seem to never learn our lesson in this regard.

We put our faith and hope for positive outcomes onto people and things (including ourselves) that are imperfect and often prone to failure. The end result is disappointment and a diminished ability to believe in anything or anyone when it comes to reliability for the things we need.

So how can we fix this? Where can we find a source of provision that will never fail us?

The answers lie in the Lord and in Him alone.

Think about it. Everyone and everything else in life is inherently flawed and with that, it’s a rather foolhardy choice to depend on either.

But we know that our Lord is perfect in every way. He has no ability to fail and when He makes a promise, He keeps it. So when we put our full and utter confidence in Him, we are always putting it in the right place.

The Apostle Paul not only knew this but expressed it through his words. Look again at what he wrote in the third chapter of 2 Thessalonians:

We have confidence in the Lord that you are doing and will continue to do the things we command. May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance. Vv. 4-5

Note here that Paul and his fellow missionaries weren’t putting any trust in the Thessalonian Christians to do the things they were commanded to do. Neither did he have belief in them to bring God’s love and Christ’s perseverance into their hearts on their own.

No, Paul made it clear that he and the other had confidence in the Lord first, the One who would be able to make everything else happen in the lives of the believers in Thessalonica.

The Lord, through the work of the Holy Spirit, could lead the members of the Thessalonian church to do and continue to do what He expected them to do, in obedience to His will and way. He would also implant His love into their hearts and persevere for the cause of the Gospel through Christ and His power.

The scriptures assure us that there is nothing impossible for our Lord to do and with this, why would we ever place our confidence anywhere else?

That’s what makes today’s message so important for all Christian believers who should follow the faithful words of David when he proclaimed:

Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. Psalm 20:7

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.

BLESSINGS FROM THE LORD

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

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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.

ASK FOR PRAYER (IT'S REALLY OKAY TO DO SO)

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

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

As for other matters, brothers and sisters, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you. And pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil people, for not everyone has faith.

2 Thessalonians 3:1-2

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

I have had the privilege to be used by the Lord since 2007 to write messages from His holy Word and within the framework of every published devotion (nearly 3,700 of them), I have always included an offer to pray for my readers. You will find this at the very beginning and end of each writing.

Unfortunately, very few people have ever taken me up on the offer. You see, there’s always a multitude of people with matter that need prayer but for some reason, they are hesitant, if not downright resistant, to reach out and ask someone to pray over them.

Recently, I have started to post specific tweets regarding my willingness to pray for anyone in need. I even created a special email address for it but to date, there have been only four people who have reached out.

So what is the issue here? Why are we so reluctant to step outside of ourselves and ask for someone to intercede with the Lord on our behalf?

I’ve obviously given this a lot of thought and have come up with several reasons.

1. Pride.

Unfortunately, most people don’t want to admit they can’t do something because it projects weakness and sometimes even failure. We’re afraid to be seen as vulnerable and insufficient and so we will do everything we can to seem like we’re better than we really are. This refusal to be authentic and surrender our pride ultimately works against us as we turn our backs on people who could really make a difference and possibly eliminate our problem altogether.

This leads me to the second reason I believe people won’t ask for prayer when they should.

2. Satan.

The last thing our enemy wants is for someone to be lifted up to the Lord in prayer because he knows that when the Lord gets involved, his wicked hope ends.

If there’s a voice in your ear giving you any number of excuses to not ask someone to pray for you, ask yourself this:

Would the Lord ever try to convince you to not have someone come to Him on your behalf in an attempt to help you?

Don’t let Satan succeed in swaying you to reach out for prayer when you need it. He deserves no victory over you or your life.

3. Privacy concerns.

I think sometimes people don’t ask for prayer because they don’t want everyone to know their business. The institution of social media has made a mockery of privacy and every day it seems that people are leveraging it as a weapon against others.

This is why a Facebook or Twitter request for someone to write a comment with a prayer request is less than optimal in effectiveness. Some people may feel comfortable doing it but a majority of people will pass. This is why I have created a dedicated email address so people can write to me confidentially and know any conversation will be between us and the Lord.

4. Shame.

Along with pride, Satan uses shame against us. No one feels good about their sin and all of us have done things we wish we wouldn’t have done. We all live with regrets.

Satan would have us go through life continuing to deal with condemnation, often self inflicted. I can’t tell you how many people I have ministered to through my lifetime who were simply unable to forgive themselves for the things they had done. If this is where you are, the enemy has you right where he wants you.

This is where our relationship with the Lord is vital and beautiful. For all we need to do is repent of our sins and the Lord will forgive and forget. What has happened in the past is left there, in the past, and the Lord then helps us move forward into the future as a changed, pardoned person who is freed from the guilt of our transgressions and working to become a better person in Christ Jesus.

Friends, it’s okay to ask for prayer. It really is. The Apostle Paul, in writing to the newly minted Christians in Thessalonica, shows us how to do it. Look at his words here from the opening two verses of 2 Thessalonians, chapter 3:

As for other matters, brothers and sisters, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you. And pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil people, for not everyone has faith.

Here we find Paul asking for intercession in two specific areas for himself and his fellow missionaries.

First, he asked for prayer over the Gospel work still being done.

Brothers and sisters, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you.

Paul and the others had moved on from Thessalonica, moving at the will of the Lord to go to new places and share the good news of salvation through Jesus. As they would go from place to place, the hope was that more churches would be planted as people chose to become Christians.

And so Paul asked his Thessalonian brothers and sisters to pray for success in this future Gospel work so the “message of the Lord” might “spread rapidly and be honored” just as it had with them.

The need for protection was the second petition we see Paul offer up.

And pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil people, for not everyone has faith.

Just as Satan works hard to thwart people from asking for prayer, he also labors persistently to try and stop the spreading of the Gospel. Paul met resistance from “wicked and evil people” nearly everywhere he brought the good news of Jesus to. He regularly experienced persecution, suffered beatings and unlawful imprisonments, and received death threats because not everyone who heard his message had faith.

Paul knew that Satan wouldn’t stop in these attacks and so he asked for the Thessalonian Christians to continue praying for the Lord to bring a covering of safety on him and the other missionaries.

Friends, this message is a critical one and I encourage you to self examine yourself to see if there is any hindrance you feel toward asking for prayer. If one is identified, I would ask you to go to the Lord in prayer and ask Him to remove that barrier, professing your full faith and trust in Him. I would then feel free to ask a faithful, willing, prayer-providing believer to intercede for you because there is definite power in numbers. If you don’t believe it, consider these words from Jesus:

“I assure you: If two of you on earth agree about any matter that you pray for, it will be done for you by My Father in Heaven.” Matthew 18:19

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.

THE GIFT OF ENCOURAGEMENT

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

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** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

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

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 in every good deed and word.

2 Thessalonians 2:16-17

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

Think about the Bible and the gifts we find given to people to serve the Lord and others.

Prophets were given the gift of prophecy so they could serve as messengers by the Lord to communicate with His people.

Teachers, who we might refer also refer to as preachers today, used their gift by taking the scriptures and instructing people as to their meaning and how it applied to living their everyday lives.

People who were given the gift of singing or playing a musical instrument would use one or both of those gifts in tandem to praise and worship the Lord.

And some in the church were given the gift of leadership, possibly in tandem with one or more of the gifts already mentioned, so to guide the members of the church in the direction the Lord willed for them to go collectively.

Now, these gifts can almost be categorized as specialized and vocational in nature as a person is to employ those gifts unique to them and use them as the Lord deems. In other words, not everyone has the gift of prophecy, teaching, music, or leadership within them.

With this, we need to know that the Lord has given everyone gifts that they are to use to do His Gospel work inside and outside the church. There are universal gifts that every single person can and should put into practice daily. Consider this passage from the twelfth chapter of Romans:

We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully. Vv.6-8  

Here we find some gifts we may not feel qualified to do but then there are those we all should be able to fulfill.

Not all of us have been given the privilege to prophesy but we should be able to serve in some way. The church is always looking for people to do nominal tasks that anyone can do like manage parking or handing out bulletins/sermon note sheets, or just greeting people as they enter the church. When churches have dinners, people are needed to set up, serve food, clear tables, and do dishes. We can serve and need to do so when the church asks for it, especially if you possibly lack more specialized skills. All parts of the church body have a part and are important.

We also see where giving is put forth by the scriptures as a gift. This can be giving to the church but it also means giving to others who are in need. There always seems to be plenty of opportunities to be charitable and we should pray over every possibility to see if the Lord is willing us to give in that way. If He wills it, then we should give generously and do so with a sense of joy because we know God loves a cheerful giver (2 Corinthians 9:7).

Showing mercy to others is also considered a gift and one we probably could use better than we do. Unfortunately, our human nature finds it hard to be forgiving as we seem to first default to condemnation when someone does wrong to us. When we do find ourselves using the gift of mercy, note that we aren’t to do so begrudgingly or half-heartedly like we are somehow showing clemency against our will. Rather, we are to show mercy cheerfully with a sense of gratitude that we can show someone what the world wouldn’t...the very grace of the Lord who wishes to have them as His own and save them. We need to remember that the opportunity to be merciful is also an opportunity to give another a glimpse of the Lord and His nature.

Finally, we find that encouragement is a gift and this is also something we all can do if we put our mind and heart to it. I don’t think I have ever met anyone who didn’t need encouragement and so there are countless occasions every day for us to put our gift into practice.

Recently, I was asked to give a message at the memorial service for a young Christian woman who was in her twenties when she entered into the Lord’s eternal rest. As I looked at the comments that people left about her on social media, a common thread emerged. For over and over again, I read about how this young lady had encouraged someone and how this blessed the person in need of encouragement. It was her legacy and a wonderful one at that.

As we look at the closing verses of 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2, we are reminded of how Paul also exercised his gift of encouragement as he wrote letters to the various Christian churches. Here’s what he said to the believers in Thessalonica:

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 in every good deed and word. Vv.16-17

We see here where Paul offers encouragement to his brothers and sisters in Christ by pointing them to the source of perfect encouragement, the Lord Jesus and His (and our) Father God. Through them both, all Christians experience both perfect love and perfect grace, pardoning us from our sins and providing us the promise of eternal life which is our “good hope”.

Friends, when we receive this reminder of our salvation and that we have all we could ever ask or hope for in God, the Maker and Master of Creation, and His Son Jesus, the Savior of the world, how could we not find our hearts encouraged and our spirits strengthened as we enter each day to perform every good deed and speak every good word the Lord wants us to?

The good news today is that we all have the ability to encourage someone else and we need to do it every chance we get. When we do, we will bless others through the use of this amazing gift the Lord has given.

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

STAND FIRM AND HOLD FAST

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

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** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

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

So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter.

2 Thessalonians 2:15

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

Have you ever been out in the elements when a strong wind blew?

I know I have and even if you haven’t, you may have watched a weather channel as brave meteorologists reported live as hurricanes were making landfall. In either instance, whether through personal experience or witnessing someone else go through it, we have learned that the force of such high winds made it hard to walk toward its direction or even try to remain in place as its power sought to move you backwards, often times succeeding. People in the midst of the storm desperately seek to brace themselves or find something immovable to hold onto.

You know, the difficulties we go through in life can be a lot like these mighty storms with their associated mighty gusts. They come against us with such force that we are moved from the place of safety we once were in and we urgently (and sometimes frantically) try to keep our footing or grab a hold of something to keep from being swept away.

After Paul left the church in Thessalonica to continue his missionary work in other locales, he held a concern that his brothers and sisters in Christ might come under siege from outsiders who would attempt to churn up storms to damage the Gospel work that he had started. We know through our study of the two letters to the Thessalonians that persecution was happening as well as false teaching regarding the return of Jesus.

And so into these forays to stir up the strong winds of confusion and deception, Paul writes these words to his brothers and sisters in Christ, words that still resonate with believers today:

So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter. 2 Thessalonians 2:15

Stand firm and hold fast.

This was Paul’s exhortation which we see is given in the form of a command. He doesn’t say, “You should try to stand firm and hold fast” or “I suggest that you make every attempt to stand form and hold fast.” No, the Apostle is giving an order to the Thessalonian believers.

Stand firm and hold fast.

Note that he then tells them what they are to stand firm on and hold fast to.

Stand firm and hold fast to the teachings we passed on to you

What were those teachings?

We know that they were Gospel-centric which means that the people knew about God’s plan for redemption and salvation for all people, the new covenant He put in place through the life, death, and resurrection of His Son Jesus. The Thessalonians would have been fully aware of how they were saved and the critical role of God’s love, grace, mercy, forgiveness, and pardon in the process. They also would have known the rich inheritance they had gained as a result of their decision to believe in Jesus as Savior.

This would have been the main teaching Paul and his fellow missionaries would have passed onto the members of the church in Thessalonica. They are also the teachings we should be standing firm and holding fast to today.

Now, we have an even greater benefit than the Thessalonian Christian had because we have access to the entirety of God’s holy Word at our disposal, a Word that offers us additional encouragement to support the commands Paul gave that form the framework for this message. Consider this from the Book of Isaiah, chapter 33:

The Lord is exalted, for He dwells on high... He will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure. Vv.5-6

When the winds from the storms of hardship rage against us, we need to stand firm in the Lord for indeed He is our sure foundation that won’t be moved as we see in 2 Timothy, chapter 2:

God’s solid foundation stands firm. 2 Timothy 2:19

Solid and always firm. When we anchor ourselves to God, we will not be moved or shaken.

He is also the One who holds us fast when we need to get a grip to stand firm against the raging winds of trial and tribulation. Look at these words from David:

Where can I go from Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence?

If I go up to the heavens, You are there; if I make my bed in the depths, You are there.

If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there Your hand will guide me, Your right hand will hold me fast. Psalm 139:7-10

God is always with us and this truth offers us the comfort and assurance we need to ever stand firm and hold fast. I’ll close this message with these words from the 46th Psalm, words I pray you will write on your heart:

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.

Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.

The Lord Almighty is with us. Vv.1-3, 7

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.

LOVED, CALLED, AND CHOSEN

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

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

But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because God chose you as first fruits to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

2 Thessalonians 2:13-14

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

Every day is an opportunity to give thanks to God and we should. For in spite of how life can bring us into difficulties, ever tempering our periods of joy, we still have reason to carry on a perpetuating attitude for gratitude and as we look at our two verses for today from the second chapter of 2 Thessalonians, we see why. Look again at Paul’s words here:

But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because God chose you as first fruits to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Vv.13-14

Here we find Paul telling his Thessalonian brothers and sisters in Christ why he and his fellow missionaries should thank God and in doing so, encourages his readers to consider being thankful for these same reasons:

First, they were loved by the Lord.         

We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord.

This is so simple but we should never lose sight of just how much our God loves us. I think we probably take this for granted more than we should.

This love of God is no ordinary, human generated kind of love, a love that is often flawed and inconsistent in its application. Rather, the affection from the Lord is perfect and holy and eternal. No one will ever love us the same as God and for that, we should be grateful.

The second thing we should give thanks for in regard to what God does for us is celebrate that we are chosen

God chose you as first fruits to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth.

No one compelled God to save us or anyone else. Rather, He did so because of His amazing grace, mercy, forgiveness, and aforementioned perfect love. Our Savior Jesus said it this way:

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

God loves all those who are obedient to Him and graciously receive His offer of salvation through belief in Jesus, His Son. Those who take Him up on this everlasting gift receive the Holy Spirit and become His children, His first fruits that are cherished and deeply valued. The scriptures tell us this in the eighth chapter of Romans:

For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by Him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory. Vv.14-17

God chose to not only love us but to save us through “the sanctifying work of the Spirit” and our “belief in the truth”, His truth. We need to praise Him and show appreciation every day for the hope that this brings.

Finally, Paul reminds the Thessalonian believers (and us) that they were called by God for amazing purposes.

He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We are chosen to be saved out of love through the Gospel and through this, we realize this calling we have from Jesus, the One who saved us:

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” Matthew 28:18-20

Through the all encompassing authority given to Him by God, Jesus commands those who are saved to go and help others find their salvation. In other words, all Christians get the privilege and honor to intentionally help others know that they too are loved, chosen, and called by the God of all creation. We should give thanks that we get to participate in God’s redemptive work in such an incredible, personal way even though we are sinners.

Friends, this is our life work in this earthly existence, to bring the Gospel to everyone we meet so that they might find their way to be saved. It’s the best work we could ever get to do and we should enter each day with this simple prayer:

Dear Lord, You have blessed me with this new chance to live and love and learn as I serve those You place in my path. I offer myself to You as a living sacrifice and ask that You use me in whatever way You see fit to help others know about Your offering of salvation through Jesus so that Your kingdom here on earth might grow. I pray this with my fullest gratitude for the opportunities to come in Your precious and holy name.

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.