God’s word is filled with His blessings and as I was reminded this morning, instructions. I am continuing to study the word “faithful” and I was led to 1 Thessalonians where I read the passage titled “Final Instructions and Benediction” in my ESV Bible. Here I found instructions for me as a Christian. I found how I am to act, and how I am be with and around others. This passage is a great list of those things that we as Christians are to take on each day in our walk with Christ and our carrying out of His will.
I am reminded that God will carry out His part for sure in His faithful love of us and our well being.
“24He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.” — 1 Thessalonians 5:24 (ESV)
I am given a list of instructions on how I am to act and go about my life in service of God. Respect others, be at peace, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient, help others to not be evil, seek to do good, rejoice, pray, give thanks, do not “quench” the Spirit, do not despise prophecies, test everything, and abstain from evil. These are the instructions given in the passage. As I read in verse 24 above, God will be faithful to me and it is my duty to be faithful in my actions and with God.
I am sitting here this morning and looking at how I can and should be active in all of those instructions in my life and wondering how I have to this point. The thing for me to really know is that now is the time to look forward. I have to be sure to take what I read and know that I have to move forward and that I am not able to “change” anything that has gone on in the past, only that I can repent for my actions and move forward to not do again.
God is faithful to me regardless of the time or circumstance. I owe it to Him to repay His faithfulness with my faithful obedience to Him. I am bound by these instructions as a child of God. My past is just that, the past and I have to be looking to the now and into tomorrow where to go from here. I have been given the instructions and now I have to use those instructions to move forward and spread the gospel to all of those I am in contact with. I have to remember what I have been tasked with from God and know that He will use me to further His kingdom. These instructions are the “how to act and perform” while I am using the talents that He has given me to use for His glory.
What instructions are you working from in your life? Are you looking at and using those that bring glory to you? What if you were to put your own selfish gains aside and seek that which brings glory to God and use those to guide your actions?
Trevor's Thoughts 