God’s Destination, our journey — I Thess 5:17-18

Joy, Thanksgiving and Prayer in the journey
On this journey that God has given us there will be many things thrown in our path to side track us from abiding in Christ and depending on Him.  One of those things is a grumbling, unappreciative, prayerless spirit.     The Apostle Paul understood that when he counseled the Thessalonian church to, “Rejoice always, pray continually, and give thanks on all occasions, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.”

It is a tremendous challenge of faith to learn to delight in God and find our joy in Him, despite the many things the world throws at us.  It takes unwavering trust in God to greet every circumstance with thanksgiving, knowing that we worship a God who is “working all things out for the good for those who love Him and have been called according to His purpose.”

Prayer is God’s vehicle for us to pour our hearts out to Him and to learn to trust Him for everything.  It is in prayer that we will discover the joy and understand that life and everything in it is a gift from God.  And so Paul, knowing life’s challenges, speaks to us from the ages that we would learn joy and gratitude and learn to “pray on all occasions.”   And when we are willing to embrace these simple commands of God to rejoice, pray and give thanks, the quality of our journey will change because we know there is a great God bringing us to an awesome destination.

God’s destination, our journey (part 3)

Sin and Temptation (James 1:15-18)

God’s destination for us is that we would be conformed into the image of His Son Jesus. (Romans 8:29)  This means that God wants us to take on in increasing measure the qualities of Christ like love, sacrifice and compassion.    But there are hindrances to joining God on that journey.  James gives us one of those hindrances, which is yielding to temptation and sin which in turns leads us to alienation from God, “each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully growth brings forth death.” (vs. 1:14)

James wants us to understand the value of persevering when we are being testing without bringing accusation against God’s character.  When we persevere and endure trusting in God’s goodness on the journey, we are promised a blessing and ‘crown of life.’     The key to victorious living and resisting temptation is to keep our eyes on Jesus who was tempted in every way we are but without sin.  (Heb 4:12)  When we do, then we are fighting our battle not from a position of weakness strength and receive the necessary power to persevere under trial and grow in our journey which is ultimately to bring God glory with our lives.