1 Thessalonians 5: 12-24

1 Thessalonians 5: 12-24

“¹²Dear brothers and sisters, honor those who are your leaders in the Lord’s work. They work hard among you and give you spiritual guidance. ¹³ Show them great respect and wholehearted love because of their work. And live peacefully with each other.

¹⁴ Brothers and sisters, we urge you to warn those who are lazy. Encourage those who are timid. Take tender care of those who are weak. Be patient with everyone.

¹⁵ See that no one pays back evil for evil, but always try to do good to each other and to all people.

¹⁶ Always be joyful. ¹⁷ Never stop praying. ¹⁸ Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.

¹⁹ Do not stifle the Holy Spirit. ²⁰ Do not scoff at prophecies, ²¹ but test everything that is said. Hold on to what is good. ²² Stay away from every kind of evil.

²³ Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again. ²⁴ God will make this happen, for he who calls you is faithful.”

I chose this passage mainly because of verses 16-18. One of my childhood friends saw that I was having a bad day and gave me these verses to lift up my spirits. What a wonderful gift my friend gave me; now I see these verses as my “life verse”, or my favorite; something I always look back on and apply to, no matter what situation I’m in.

Have you ever decided to be happy, just because, in a hard time? I’ve tried this and it is the best thing you could ever do for yourself. I would do this at work when I had to talk, interact, and work with customers who were stressed out or irritated, I kept a smile on my face, and tossed MY worries aside and just focused on giving everyone a good, fun, safe, and stress-free time. I thought of others before myself, I had their interests and my own, and having this genuine joy, being an example of not freaking out when things got tough, was awe-inspiring to me and others I encountered. So step two: I would pray constantly with God, (I find that a cool way is to talk out loud when you’re driving alone in the car) and even though you can’t see God, you feel and just know that He is listening. Now, what I had a hard time with at first was praising and giving thanks to Him in difficult times or when something bad happened. I got better with this by speaking my mind with God and it feels like a sudden relief, a weight is taken off your shoulders.

All the other surrounding verses are just as important. This passage passionately teaches us and sets a good example of encouragement.  The author encourages us to be strong in our faith, and with verse 24 being such a wonderful promise: God is faithful; He will never fail; He will never forsake us.

I want encourage, inspire, and give you all hope in a faith of a Father who will lead us by still waters and through green pastures, and when we fall astray, He will guide us like sheep back onto the path of righteousness. “…for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.”

Dear Lord,

Thank you for those who have the spiritual gift to encourage and inspire us. Please teach us and guide us on this walk of faith to be joyful always, to constantly be in prayer, and to reflect on everything we need to give thanks for…in any situation. Thank you for loving us just the way we are!

-Amen.