Before I go on in our study of 1st Thessalonians I’d like to share how I have applied what we found in chapter 2 to my own life. The focus of our study was addressing the question, “What kind of input am I getting for my spiritual experience, my growth and my maturing?” Since I am called and in ministry, providing input into other’s lives, I needed to ask myself,
-Am I the kind of teacher/mentor described here?
-Do those I minister to sense that I am authentic, humbly serving God with a view to pleasing Him?
-Am I gentle in caring for others like a mother is in caring for her little children?
-Do I just dispense information, or do I give of myself even to the point of sacrifice?
-Am I willing to sacrifice when necessary?
-Am I committed as a father would be toward his own children?
-Do I exemplify in my walk what I encourage and challenge others to strive for?
-If they come up short, am I ready to comfort them?
As I go through that kind of self examination before God I must admit I’m not always what I would like to be. I’m surely not all I believe God would have me be. But I can humbly bear witness to the fact that I’m more like that than I used to be. Others have attested to the impact my life and ministry have had on them. I generally sense the smile of God on my life.
Having said that I must like Paul acknowledge that “by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them – yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10).
