ADORATION – Reflect on God’s Greatness
GOD IS JUST God always does what is right, and He is the final standard of what is right. Scripture attests to God’s righteousness and justice:
- “All his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and right is he” (Deuteronomy 32:4).
- “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Genesis 18:25).
- “The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart” (Psalm 19:8).
- “I the Lord speak the truth, I declare what is right” (Isaiah 45:19).
Paul says that when God sent Christ as a sacrifice to bear the punishment for sin, it “was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins; it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies him who has faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:25–26). When Christ died to pay the penalty for our sins it showed that God was both righteous and just, because he paid the wages of sin (Romans 6:23) and forgave his people.
CONFESSION: Confess your sins to God and receive his continued mercy.
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9
THANKSGIVING: Giving thanks to God for his specific blessings in our lives.
“Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.” Psalm 100
SUPPLICATION: Bringing our requests to God.
- Bring your personal prayer requests to God.
- Pray for Austin and Jenni. Ask God to encourage them and use them to make his love known as they serve overseas.
SCRIPTURE READING:
1 Thessalonians 3 New International Version
So when we could stand it no longer, we thought it best to be left by ourselves in Athens. 2 We sent Timothy, who is our brother and co-worker in God’s service in spreading the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you in your faith, 3 so that no one would be unsettled by these trials. For you know quite well that we are destined for them. 4 In fact, when we were with you, we kept telling you that we would be persecuted. And it turned out that way, as you well know. 5 For this reason, when I could stand it no longer, I sent to find out about your faith. I was afraid that in some way the tempter had tempted you and that our labors might have been in vain.
Timothy’s Encouraging Report
6 But Timothy has just now come to us from you and has brought good news about your faith and love. He has told us that you always have pleasant memories of us and that you long to see us, just as we also long to see you. 7 Therefore, brothers and sisters, in all our distress and persecution we were encouraged about you because of your faith. 8 For now we really live, since you are standing firm in the Lord. 9 How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you? 10 Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again and supply what is lacking in your faith.
11 Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus clear the way for us to come to you. 12 May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. 13 May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.
SCRIPTURE REFLECTION:
Paul trusted God and he sometimes “felt anxious.” This from the guy who wrote that we should not be anxious about anything but in everything we should take our requests to God and experience his peace. He was no hypocrite. He never said “I don’t ever feel anxious.” He simply said that we should not be anxious about anything. That is, we should not remain in our anxiety; instead we should proactively take it God. There are so many things to be anxious about. So many things that are very important to us yet are out of our control. We must take our anxiety to God because we are going to become anxious. The alternative is to let our anxiety undermine our lives and rob us of peace. What Paul did, besides taking his anxious thoughts to God, was to be proactive about the choices he did have to make. He sent Timothy to encourage them in their faith rather than simply worrying about whether they remained encouraged. Now please take note, this was a sacrificial choice on Paul’s part. He treasured Timothy as a friend and he was giving up his own key source of encouragement in order to not be anxious about whether the church was encouraged. Interesting isn’t it? He took his anxious thoughts to God and he made sacrificial choices to deal with the source of his anxiety. This reminds me of the old Hymn, “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way, to be happy in Jesus, than to trust and obey.” He trusted by taking his anxiety to Jesus. He obeyed by putting the interests of others ahead of his own.