Bible League: Living His Word Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.— 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 NKJV In 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 there are three short commands given to us. Since our world is very confusing today and with our problems, we seem to have difficulty finding joy. It will do us good to pay attention to what Paul said to this group of believers located in Thessalonica. Beginning with verse sixteen Paul admonishes that we should "Rejoice always." This is the shortest command in God's Word. "Rejoicing always" requires us as believers in the Lord Jesus to take constant inventory of our lives. Too often we allow outside circumstances to affect our joy. Inner gladness of heart, for a believer in Jesus Christ, is not dependent upon our outside circumstances. Real joy comes from the Holy Spirit. Joy is the sweet sign of the presence of the Holy Spirit. If we are wanting to do God's will in 2024, we will need to follow these three short commands. These are simple profound exhortations in one place. As someone once said, these verses are standard orders of the Gospels. These standard orders include the four additional commands that follow in verses nineteen through twenty-two. The additional commands are these: "Do not quench the Spirit; do not despise prophecies; test all things; and abstain from every form of evil." The last four commands are easier to follow if we follow the first three. The second of the three short commands is "Pray without ceasing." Paul does not mean that we are to be in deep prayer 24 hours a day. All of us have responsibilities that we must complete every day. So, what does it mean to pray without ceasing? It means that prayer is a way of life. We go to God in prayer first and always. Someone who prays without ceasing has a posture for their life of trust in God. The height of trust is prayer. Our God is a prayer-hearing God. For a good 2024 for you, pray without ceasing. Next, the Word tells us "In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." A heart of gratitude can prevail even in all that occurs. All of us have difficult events or occurrences that happen in our lives. Even during these events, we can be thankful to our God. All our giving of thanks is anchored in the trust we have in Christ. The key question for us is, do we trust God? We must be "in Christ Jesus" for us to be obedient to the commands found here in this passage or any command in God's Word. All of us need to do an inventory of our lives and ask ourselves, "Do I completely and definitively trust God?" And, if we are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we can obey these commands. Remember, we do not obey these commands or any command of God's in our strength but through a totally surrendered life to the Lord Jesus. The power to obey the Lord comes from the truth in Galatians 2:20. This verse provides, "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." By Jim Prock, Bible League International staff, Illinois U.S. Bible in a Year Old Testament ReadingDeuteronomy 11, 12, 13 Deuteronomy 11 -- God's Great Blessings for Obedience and Love NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Deuteronomy 12 -- Laws of the Sanctuary NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Deuteronomy 13 -- No Mercy for Idolaters NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading Mark 13:1-13 Mark 13 -- Christ Foretells the Destruction of the Temple and His Return; Day and Hour Unknown NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. Tyndale Life Application Daily Devotion He has removed our sins as far from usas the east is from the west. Insight East and west can never meet. This is a symbolic portrait of God's forgiveness—when he forgives our sin, he separates it from us and doesn't even remember it. We need never wallow in the past, for God forgives and forgets. We tend to dredge up the ugly past, but God has wiped our record clean. Challenge If we are to follow God, we must model his forgiveness. When we forgive another, we must also forget the sin. Otherwise, we have not truly forgiven. Morning and Evening by Spurgeon Job 14:1 Man ... is of few days, and full of trouble.It may be of great service to us, before we fall asleep, to remember this mournful fact, for it may lead us to set loose by earthly things. There is nothing very pleasant in the recollection that we are not above the shafts of adversity, but it may humble us and prevent our boasting like the Psalmist in our morning's portion. "My mountain standeth firm: I shall never be moved." It may stay us from taking too deep root in this soil from which we are so soon to be transplanted into the heavenly garden. Let us recollect the frail tenure upon which we hold our temporal mercies. If we would remember that all the trees of earth are marked for the woodman's axe, we should not be so ready to build our nests in them. We should love, but we should love with the love which expects death, and which reckons upon separations. Our dear relations are but loaned to us, and the hour when we must return them to the lender's hand may be even at the door. The like is certainly true of our worldly goods. Do not riches take to themselves wings and fly away? Our health is equally precarious. Frail flowers of the field, we must not reckon upon blooming forever. There is a time appointed for weakness and sickness, when we shall have to glorify God by suffering, and not by earnest activity. There is no single point in which we can hope to escape from the sharp arrows of affliction; out of our few days there is not one secure from sorrow. Man's life is a cask full of bitter wine; he who looks for joy in it had better seek for honey in an ocean of brine. Beloved reader, set not your affections upon things of earth: but seek those things which are above, for here the moth devoureth, and the thief breaketh through, but there all joys are perpetual and eternal. The path of trouble is the way home. Lord, make this thought a pillow for many a weary head! Daily Light on the Daily Path Matthew 18:20 "For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst."John 14:23 Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. John 15:10 "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love. Galatians 5:22,23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, • gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. John 15:8 "My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. John 15:2 "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. Philippians 1:11 having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. For Permission to Quote Information visit http://www.lockman.org. |
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