5-8-2014

Good Morning All,

        1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18; “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

     We are approaching the time of year when graduations will begin to occur.  It is a time when platitudes, advice, well wishes and the like will be given out.  Some will listen, some will not.  Some advice is worth remembering but some is not.  The graduates are often admonished to work hard, to dream big and to seek out their goals in life.  This may sound good but sometimes it is difficult, if not impossible to accomplish.

     Paul’s admonishment to the Thessalonians (and to us) sounds good as well.  It is one of those pieces of advice that we might think, “well if everything goes right, it will be easy to rejoice always, to give thanks and to pray all the time.”  When life is good, everything is easy.  It is when life throws us a challenge that it gets tough.

    So how do we follow this admonition?  First we need to separate and clarify some things.  We are not rejoicing because we are in pain or hurting; we rejoice in God’s promise and in the knowledge that the pain and the hurting will not last.  We don’t look forward to the hurt; we look past it knowing that God’s love is in control.

    So if we lose our job, or have some other financial setback, we know that God provides for us so we rejoice in his grace.  We ask him for guidance in our comeback, we ask for patience as it unfolds and we ask for peace while things work out.  So if we have health issues, we pray for God’s healing and in that healing we include physical healing, emotional healing, spiritual healing and even for relational healing to occur in our life.  We can give thanks knowing that God will provide the healing which we are in most need of.

    We rejoice and give thanks, not necessarily because we have suffering rather we rejoice and give thanks over the suffering, around the suffering and despite the suffering.  The suffering does not define us.  We are defined by God’s grace.  We are God’s children.  We are redeemed children of God, living in a broken and corrupted creation, but we are his beloved family.  He gives us the certainty of our salvation but he also gives us the comfort of the Spirit and the consolation of our brothers and sisters in Christ to help us through the times of pain.

    So we rejoice, knowing that we suffer, not alone, but are comforted by his grace and mercy.  He comes to us to give us peace.  We pray for that peace, for that hope, for that comfort knowing that he will send it.  So we give thanks for giving us the perseverance to endure.  Then, when it is over, we celebrate even more for he has brought us through.  So rejoice, give thanks and pray all the time.  God loves you, all the time so rejoice.

Father of all goodness, there are too many times when I do not rejoice.  There are too many times when I fail to pray or give thanks.  It is at those times when I suffer the most.  Help me to trust in your mercy and to see that pain and problems are only temporary while your love is eternal.  Be with those who are in pain now.  Guard them by your Spirit and make them whole.  In the precious name of Jesus, our risen Savior, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret