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 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Blessed

Blessed Deuteronomy 3:21 – “…Your eyes have seen all that the Lord your God has done…” I am so blessed to have had the opportunity to serve in Costa Rica for these past 6 months.   God has shown me so many things that I will never forget. He has revealed to me the truth about myself that I have an attitude of complaining, pridefulness and laziness, all which needed to be strip away. He has displayed to me his promises of faithfulness, provision, fulfillment, renewal, and boldness. He has also allowed me to look through his eyes and experience his love that he has for all his children. Honestly, I don’t ever think that I would have experience that kind of love anywhere else. I can’t even explain it, it’s like complete joy and fulfillment. I don’t know, it’s crazy. That is something that I am going to bring back home with me, I am passionate about kids and loving on them the way the Lord loves me. This season was amazing but, what I have to remember is, that just beca...
Read more
Faith Hebrews 11:6 – it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that He rewarder those who sincerely seek him.               Reading over Hebrews 11, and its main focus point is on the topic, “Faith.” When you just stop and think it’s clearly stated. You cannot please God without faith. Like, how can I please you, Father, if I don’t have faith in who you are as my maker? All these people in Hebrews are being led by faith. They literally are relying on God’s promise alone and having no idea what’s coming around the corner. They were obedient to the calling of Christ. It pleases God that we are faithful to His calling in our lives. I like think that our obedience is a sweet fragrance unto Him in the heavens. Pleasing the Lord is what I was put on this world to do. I was created to spread the love of Christ to whoever would receive it. This verse makes a go...
Read more
Perseverance 1 Luke 8:11-15 – This is the meaning of the parable; the seed is God’s word. The Seeds that fell on the footpath represent those who hear the message, only to have the devil come and take it away for their hearts and prevent them from believing and being saved. The seeds on the rocky soil represent those who hear the message and receive it with joy. But since they don’t have deep roots, they believe for a while, then they fall away when they face and temptation. The seeds that fall among the thorns represent those who hear the message, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the cares and riches and pleasures of this life and so they never grow into maturity. And the seeds that fell on the good soil represents honest, good hearted people who hear God’s word, cling to it, and patiently produce a huge harvest. This whole passage basically is the observations. It’s talking about 4 different kinds of people and what happens after they hear the word of God. The f...
Read more