What is Lacking?

What is Lacking?

1 Thessalonians 1:2-7 – “We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.  For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake.  And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers…”

I just started the book of Thessalonians the other day and they think the author of this book is Paul because of the writing style and theology. If this is Paul, then, I love the way he is so sincere with his brothers in Christ. The way he starts every letter to his friends, he greats them with much remembrance and thankfulness for them. Paul knew that the church had its own problems but He saw the evident changes in the lives there by their faith, love and steadfast hope. He points out that their faith has produced work, their love produced labor and their hope produced patience. Those are some of the key fruits in a devoted Christian life.  Furthering on, Paul tells them that they are chosen and therefore loved by God. It was through the words and power of the Holy Spirit that they became imitators of the Lord. Everything that came at them from the world, affliction and problems, they received with a supernatural joy making them over comers and examples to the others around them.

What are we lacking?  Today the church is lacking in all of these key attributes. They lack faith, love and hope. Without them, and the other ones, we cannot properly growing as a congregation. We start to lack the passion and fire that the Holy Spirit gives us freely. Why are we not growing spiritually anymore? It only took 12 men to completely change the world, changes that still affect us and encourage us today. I think it’s because we are stuck in our ways. Think about this, if God is not the king on our throne then Satan is. I have been challenged lately to self-examine my heart daily. Like this Church, they decided to look at themselves and make a change to have God on the throne of their hearts. Allowing the Holy Spirit to come upon then with a supernatural Joy to overcome their temptations and bring furtherance to Gods kingdom. Can you imagine if more of us made the decision to live like the 12? How much more could we seriously change this world? I struggle to completely surrender my flesh to God. It’s challenging to die to self like the apostles did, but I know that it’s completely worth it in the end. I don’t want to run this race unless I know that God is at the finish line to welcome me.  Sacrifice and discipline has to happen in order to gain everything. I know that through that hardships, the way I let God handle them for me, are shown to others and that leaves an impact on them. And hopefully bring up questions on my I have joy in the midst of affliction. I pray that I can have joy in every circumstance in am in.
Application

Write down ways to pray for others and encourage them 

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