1 Thessalonians 3:1-13
Therefore when we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left behind at Athens alone, 2 and we sent Timothy, our brother and God's coworker in the gospel of Christ, to establish and exhort you in your faith, 3 that no one be moved by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we are destined for this. 4 For when we were with you, we kept telling you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction, just as it has come to pass, and just as you know. 5 For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent to learn about your faith, for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and our labor would be in vain.
6 But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us the good news of your faith and love and reported that you always remember us kindly and long to see us, as we long to see you— 7 for this reason, brothers, in all our distress and affliction we have been comforted about you through your faith. 8 For now we live, if you are standing fast in the Lord. 9 For what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God, 10 as we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith?
11 Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, 12 and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, 13 so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.
My mother and I were watching "To Kill a Mockingbird" in the last couple of years and I looked at her in one of the front yard scenes and it dawned on me, this was my grandmother's neighborhood during the Great Depression. My mother agreed her Dallas neighborhood had been just like it. My grandmother Anita had taught a Methodist Bible Sunday School for 42 years to a crowd of about 60 people. One of the grumples my grandmother had was, "I feel so Afflicted!"
This passage tells us about people. Affliction does not draw people. It is Love. Timothy knew God's love and was going towards that Love. To know we are earnestly cared for and thought of. It is what we are called to be; to Grow Up and Go Home. It is our delight, our place and God's will to love the people God gives us.
Each day we put out our hands and say, "Father God. I cannot do this alone. I have no goodness other than You. I am grumpy and self-centered and put myself first. Help me, just in Your Goodness, to Strengthen my feeble hands, steady the knees that give way. To encourage the ones around us to care for one another. Remembering when Moses' hands grew tired, friends took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. People who cared for Moses held his hands up--one on one side, one on the other--so that his hands remained steady till sunset."
Please pray for my husband who has had one diagnosis he liked and wasn't complete. He needs encouragement for another opinion. Your prayers would be appreciated.
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My mother and I were watching "To Kill a Mockingbird" in the last couple of years and I looked at her in one of the front yard scenes and it dawned on me, this was my grandmother's neighborhood during the Great Depression. My mother agreed her Dallas neighborhood had been just like it. My grandmother Anita had taught a Methodist Bible Sunday School for 42 years to a crowd of about 60 people. One of the grumples my grandmother had was, "I feel so Afflicted!"
This passage tells us about people. Affliction does not draw people. It is Love. Timothy knew God's love and was going towards that Love. To know we are earnestly cared for and thought of. It is what we are called to be; to Grow Up and Go Home. It is our delight, our place and God's will to love the people God gives us.
Each day we put out our hands and say, "Father God. I cannot do this alone. I have no goodness other than You. I am grumpy and self-centered and put myself first. Help me, just in Your Goodness, to Strengthen my feeble hands, steady the knees that give way. To encourage the ones around us to care for one another. Remembering when Moses' hands grew tired, friends took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. People who cared for Moses held his hands up--one on one side, one on the other--so that his hands remained steady till sunset."
Please pray for my husband who has had one diagnosis he liked and wasn't complete. He needs encouragement for another opinion. Your prayers would be appreciated.
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