Some Things Shouldn't Wait

Having just said that I would put off my devotional till later, I am convicted to not delay. So at the risk of setting a bad example, I'm posting anyway.

My reading this morning is from 1 Thessalonians.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (NIV)

¹⁶ Be joyful always; ¹⁷ pray continually; ¹⁸ give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

Aside from the obvious applications of this encouragement from the Apostle Paul, I am accepting this a personal instruction. Okay, I won't argue with you about 2 Timothy 3:16-17 which states that 'All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, correcting, rebuking and training in righteousness so the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." Meaning, that I should take all scripture as personal instruction. :)

What I mean is that I'm taking it as the 'message of the day' so to speak. The manifestation of God's living word in my life that gives me exactly what I need before I know that I need it. So here's my take on this...

First, "be joyful always." That's a pretty tall order for me. I do apply my best effort to find joy in the circumstances of my life. I seek to know 'what' and not 'why' when I am tested, tempted and tried. That's true today. My question concerning the sudden opposition and evidence of my weakness with respect to my daily devotional is "what are you trying to teach me LORD?" The answer given my soul is that "pride in doing the daily devotional robs it off its purpose and power." At the same time, the answer is "in your weakness my glory is revealed." And also that "in your own power you can do nothing." So, now I must intentionally be joyFUL in the knowledge that God has just rebuked me! How do I do that? Oh, I've got that one covered! God only rebukes his children! He is treating me as one of his own. I welcome the discipline as one who needs the discipline and one who loves the Father. So, I will be joyful in my learning and in the receiving of this loving act of discipline from a merciful God. I will redouble my efforts to adjust my schedule and priorities for my devotional. Not as something that should be done or must be done but rather as something that CAN be done. It is a privilege, not a duty; a right, not a responsibility. Thank you God.

Second, "pray continually." Webster defines 'continually' as "continuing indefinitely in time without interruption" Thus, I read this to mean that we are to remain in a constant conversation with God throughout all aspects of our life. Yes it is appropriate that we have specific times when we begin "Our Father" and we end with "Amen" but these are to be punctuation marks in an ongoing conversation. I tend to think of the 'formal prayers' as possible traps to me. What I mean is that the ongoing dialog, casual conversation that I have with God via the spirit, that's prayer too. Prayer is not defined by the structure or the use of formal language. That is prayer TOO but not prayer only. I draw encouragement from this because my conversations with God continue to grow in frequency and duration. I draw conviction from this because there are times when I stop the conversation. As you can imagine, that's usually followed by a problem of some sort.

We end today with V18, "give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus." This perhaps is one of the more difficult commands given us in God's word. As if loving our neighbors as ourselves, praying for our enemies and blessing those who curse us isn't hard enough, when we are hurting, suffering or despairing, we are to give thanks. Not just when our plates are full and the bills are paid, those times too we are to give thanks because we ARE thankful. But when the cupboard is bare and the bills are piling up, we are to give thanks or perhaps even then we are to BE thankful. This requires a real paradigm shift that is counter-cultural. Let's go straight to a hard example to make the point; the loss of a child. How is a parent to give thanks to God when a child has been taken from them? There is no logical or natural explanation for this. There is however a supernatural explanation and that is we can give thanks in all circumstances because we have been transformed by the renewing of our mind. The earthly trials and travails are just the preliminary warmup for eternity. Using our example, by God's mercy and grace through Christ Jesus we know that the loss of a child here is the gain of a child in Heaven. Consider this clumsy analogy. God GAVE His Son (heaven's loss) that we may receive Him here and in so doing, the world gained salvation. Heaven's loss was our gain. I know that's a simplistic but hard saying and I pray now with all my heart that God will be merciful not to allow me to live out this truth.

Now I go to engage in my day properly prepared. May God bless you this day as you go about joyful in everything you do, talking with him as you go and giving thanks for every breath you draw.

Sincerely,
Carl