Before going on in our study of 1st Thessalonians I’d like to share how I’ve applied to my own life what we found in chapter 2. The focus of our study was addressing the question, “What kind of input am I getting to grow and mature in my spiritual experience?”
Since I’ve been called and in ministry, providing input into other’s lives, I needed to ask myself: Am I the kind of person described here? Do those I minister to sense I’m authentic, humbly serving God, desiring to please Him? Am I gentle as I care for others, like a mother cares for her little children? Do I just dispense information, or do I give of myself to the point of sacrifice? Am I committed as a father should be toward his own children? Do I exemplify what I encourage and challenge others to strive for? If they come up short, am I ready to comfort them?
As I examine myself before God I admit I’m not always what I would like to be. I’m surely not all God would have me be. But I can humbly bear witness that I’m more like that than I used to be. Others attest to how God has impacted them through me. I generally sense the smile of God on my life.
Having said that, I must like Paul acknowledge: “by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect…I worked hard…yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10).
