Faith, hope and love

I Thessalonians 1:3 Remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

There were three things that encouraged Paul as he prayed for these believers in Thessalonica: their work of faith, their labor of love, and their steadfastness of hope in Christ.  These encouraging aspects of their Christian walk were also the object of his prayers for them.  I was thinking about this – he was praying about things in their lives that were already manifesting themselves, so why was he praying about those same things?  These are the same three items listed in I Corinthians 13 as characteristics most important in the life of a believer: faith, hope and love.  Faith that creates works that please and honor God, hope that keeps one’s faith strong and forward-looking, and love that forms the basis of all a believer is or does.  Prayer was necessary because these three characteristics of a believer are also fragile and easily weakened or lost by a loss of vision or spiritual life.  Paul understood that principle so he prayed for them even while thanking God for those being displayed in their lives.

My heavenly spice rack

II John 3 Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Father’s Son, in truth and love.

Once again I see here that there are certain characteristics, certain qualities, certain gifts God has given me because of my relationship with Him.  I do not have to ask God for these things; they are already mine to use.  Grace, mercy, peace, truth and love are in me and only need to be drawn on and put to use.  I picture the m like a row of bottles of spices in my kitchen cabinet, just sitting there waiting for me to open and add to my kitchen project depending only on what I need to use.  I have been given the whole “spice rack” by my Heavenly Father and my Savior.

Elements of godly living

I Thessalonians 4:11-12 But we urge you … to do this  [love one another] more and more, and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, … so that you may walk properly before outsiders …

When I think about it, the things that impress me most about other people I know, or who I watch, are the very same things mentioned in these verses.  They tell us what will help us to walk properly before outsiders, to be a good testimony to God’s love and God’s will.  They are simple things to do, easily done if one put his mind to it, and yet they are the very things we see go lacking so easily in the lives of so many around us.  It is not hard to find examples of lack of love around us, and we certainly see the results of failure to live quiet lives or to have a proper work ethic.  And without people minding their own affairs we see how well the social journalists thrive, the success of all the social media.  If I live my life by these principles, there is no question that my life will be a good testimony to the people around me.  They are not going to see it otherwise in our current society.