January 28 - Patience

I decided not to do my push-ups, sit-ups, or mile today since it is my day of birth. My wife loves me...that is a great gift.

1 Thessalonians 5:14-15

14 And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone. 15 Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.

The instructions here are simple and meaningful. The words of God are not just random words and letters pieced together to make pretty sentences. We do not attain eternal life or bring glory to God for simply reading the bible. We do however get rewarded for believing and living out the truths we discover in each book, chapter, verse, and word.

Paul gives orders to the Thessalonian Christians in this passage that is backed spiritually by God's commandments throughout the Bible. First of all we are to warn those who are idle. These are the Christians that proclaim their faith, but never act upon it. "Lukewarm" Christians is a term that has been popularly used to describe the idle state of some believers. Many of us have been or are in this state. We are to also help the weak. This isn't necessarily describing someone as being physically weak, although we should reach out our hands to help the sick, but it's describing someone who is spiritually weak. Our friends at work, our family who have fallen due to bad decisions, and even people within our church family can become weak and weary. We should help these people by motivating, praying for them, and setting a Godly example for them to live by.

Preventing someone from seeking revenge on someone who has done them wrong is almost impossible. When human hearts get broken, humans begin to start acting ugly. As Christians, we are to remind those people of the love that Christ shared with humanity. The love of God is greater than any love I have ever felt or known, simply because I know that A) I am made in His image B) He gave His only son as a sacrifice and C) HE FORGIVES ME. Why can we not take that message to the hearts of our co-workers, friends, and family. People do wrong to people everyday. I am sure I have hurt someone in 2011 and we are not out of January. Vengeance is never the answer and thankfully, that is not how the Lord operates.

On a scale from 1 to 10 (10 being greatest), how would you rate your kindness level? Just be honest with yourself. Rewind your day and think about ever instance you can think of. Did you approach everyone with a servant's heart? Sometimes it's hard to be kind to those we are close with and those we barely even know.

It's amazing the witnessing opportunities we have with our lives. If we mold our lives after things of this world, that is who everyone will see. If we base our decisions and actions on biblical truths, then the work of the Lord will be carried out. I think of two wads of play-dough. You can take both wads to the beach and take them out to play with them. There's one simple difference though. One chunk of play-dough is enclosed within a plastic ziplock bag and the other is open and exposed. You drop both in the sand and one obviously stays clean. Our lives can be like the sandy play-dough, which has remnants and traces of the world's lies, scum, dirt, sins, and anger or our lives can be enclosed in biblical truths such as the ones listed above, in which people look at us and think, "that is pretty awesome...I want to be like that".

Lastly, verse 16 and 17 state: "Be joyful always; pray continually".

Make your life a prayer...a constant prayer. Our actions communicate to God our intent. If we love God truly, we will live out our lives as sacrifices, giving the most we can give to Him.

I want to be patient with those around me, because Christ is patient with me...