How are we supposed to live our daily lives?
These two verses spoke to me as if straight from God (wait, it's the Bible... it IS straight from God). God convicts in the simplest of ways. Too often I find myself caught up in the daily drone, the monotonous, day-by-day walkthrough that leads me down paths away from God and into the world. Often I question myself, what am I doing? Why do I live this life; moreover, how do I live this life for Christ? First of all it's not going through the motions: as we see in these verses the Christian faith is an active and difficult one. But what are the strong roots that support the tree of life in our lives? Faith, love, and hope. My favorite version is the NIV, which I tagged, because it says "work PRODUCED BY faith, labor PROMPTED BY love, and endurance INSPIRED BY hope. So, when so often I find myself assimilating to the world's temptations, or simply being a light to the world with a dead battery, I know to go back to my "energy source" : faith, love, and hope. Why work, why live, why go to school? Well our work and labor should be PRODUCED and PROMPTED by faith and love -- all actions should exemplify Christ in our lives. So "lazy" should never enter my mind. In addition, everything I do SHOULD be as a result of my faith and resulting love. Also, in verse 6 it speaks of the Thessalonians accepting the word of the Lord with *joy* "in spite of severe struggling." This takes me back to some of my favorite verses in Scripture, Romans 5:3-5:
3Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
So, I guess for me these verses convict and then encourage... because who doesn't want or need some hope, love, and joy in this day and age?
Created over 2 years ago
