About two and a half years ago, the Lord allowed a friend of mine and his wife to share their testimonies about the things God had done in their lives. My friend testified to the fact of how God brought him to his federal job and within a couple of years, was promoted two levels from a GS-7 to a GS-11, thus making more money than he ever had his life. His wife got up to testify how God allowed her to go from employment to unemployment to employment again, making more money than she ever had in her life. The vital message the two brought was the fact that they held on to God's unchanging hand and believed in Him. Upon completion of their testimony, many of their church family members came to them and told them how blessed they were by their testimony. I don't know about you, but there are times where God will allow you to be blessed through other's testimonies. Today's text conveys this point in a clear manner.
Today's main scripture is found in Paul's first letter to the church at Thessalonica. Paul's intent in writing this letter was to clear up the misunderstandings the church had about the return of Christ. In addition, Paul writes this letter to provide the church holy instruction. Within the third chapter, Paul and Silas had intentions on visiting the church in Thessalonica, but due to Satan's plan (Chapter 2), they stayed back in Athens and sent Timothy. The location of our main scripture shows Timothy giving an encouraging report to Paul about what is going on in Thessalonica, thus setting the backdrop for today's topic.
The text begins with, "Therefore, brothers, in all our distress and persecution". This piece to me is important. It's important because it allows us to re-affirm the feelings of Paul because he could not get to the church in Thessalonica. It re-affirm the feelings of what Paul and Silas were going through while doing the work of the Lord. It allows us, as readers, to see that they were in distress and were persecuted. If we cut the grass short enough, we are all going through some kind of distress and/or persecution. It may be the distress of not taking care of your financial obligations. It may be the persecution of people at your workplace. It may be the distress of a painful situation at home with your spouse. It may be the distress of a child who has strayed away from the fold. At the end of the day, we are all going through something!
As we are going through our situations and circumstances, God has a way of sending you a blessing! This point is conveyed when Paul wrote "we were encouraged about you because of your faith". Though you may have problems in your marriage, God will send you a couple that can tell you their story and bring you encouragement that your problem is not as big as you thought! Though you may have problems with your children, God will send parents so you can hear their story and give you encouragement to know that the child will be fine! Though you may be ailing in your body, God will allow you to hear a testimony about someone's healing from a disease to bring you hope! Though you may have not received a promotion on your job in years, God will send someone to testify how they waited years at a time and God blessed them with a promotion! Those who are testifying have this testimony because they had faith in God! They had the vision to know it was going to happen, but just did not know when it was going to happen (Hebrews 11:1)! When you have people like that testifying about the goodness of God, it ought to bless you and re-charge your batteries to go on a little further!
In closing, it blesses me to hear how God has moved in the lives of His people. It gives me encouragement to fight on and potentially be the one giving the testimony! Allow your ears to be opened and receive the goodness of God through other's testimonies! If you do that, I guarantee you that you will be blessed and make you thank God just a little bit harder!
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