The Future According to GodSample

1 THESSALONIANS 3: Stand Firm

In 1 Thessalonians 3, Paul hears the Thessalonians are standing firm despite persecution. Have you suffered because of your faith? Can you stand firm? Have you? Please read or listen to 1 Thessalonians 3.

COMMENTS

For 1 Thessalonians, I selected journals three years in a row, 1992, 1993, and 1994, something different than what I have done in other Day by Day Through the Bible daily devotions. I was thirty-seven, thirty-eight, and thirty-nine years old. It is interesting, I read 1 and 2 Thessalonians in three consecutive years. I thought it might be interesting to see if the journal entries were all the same or if they were slightly different.

Here is my journal entry for 1 Thessalonians 3 from 1992, “Destined for affliction, referring to 1 Thessalonians 3:3 NASB.” Then, referring to 1 Thessalonians 3:5-8 NASB, “Those who stand firm give confidence to others.”

In 1993, I wrote, “Go, ‘to strengthen and encourage you (in) your faith’, referring to 1 Thessalonians 3:2.” Onto verse 8, “we live, if you stand firm” (1 Thess 3:8 NASB). Then onto verse 13, “I would like my heart to be unblameable ‘in holiness before our God and Father’ (1 Thess 3:13 NASB). Help me live to strengthen and encourage others so I can live because they stand firm.”

In 1994, I wrote, “Paul worried, did it stick? He couldn’t get to the Thessalonians, so he sent Timothy. He hears back that they believe and they are growing in Christ. ‘For now we really live, if you stand firm in the Lord’” (1 Thess 3:8 NASB).

Those three journal entries, from three years in a row, are pretty much the same with a similar emphasis on standing firm.

Let’s look at chapter 3. Paul sent Timothy back to Thessalonica, “to establish and exhort you in your faith”, according to 1 Thessalonians 3:2 ESV. As we saw in the book introduction, the Thessalonians were suffering continuing persecution for their faith in Jesus. They were probably hoping those afflictions would go away, but they had not.

In verses 3 and 4, Paul wrote, “that no one be moved by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we are destined for this. For when we were with you, we kept telling you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction” (1 Thess 3:3-4 ESV). He relates those afflictions to “the tempter” (1 Thess 3:5 ESV). When you became a Christian, when you accepted Jesus as your personal Savior, did you think your life was going to get better? Did you think you were going to be blessed? Did you think you were going to have the favor of God? Or did you understand you might suffer for your testimony for Christ?

I do not know about you, but I do not give the devil a lot of credit in my life. I want to live in verses like, “greater is he that is in (me), than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4 KJV). But I do realize books like Thessalonians and other books in the scripture remind us we can be, and will be, persecuted for our faith in Jesus.

Paul may have worried about them wilting under the afflictions, but he gets the good news from Timothy that they have not. He says, “For now we live, if you are standing fast in the Lord” (1 Thess 3:8 ESV).

Who led you to Jesus? How did you come to faith in Christ? If those who saw it happen saw you today, would they rejoice that you are standing fast, that you are standing firm in your faith in Christ?

When I became a Christian at fifteen years old, I was a lone ranger. I did not have any Christian friends. I was not in a youth group. All I had was the Word of God. When I went to college, I was asked to get in a Bible study. The two guys leading the Bible Study, I eventually nicknamed “Peter” and “Paul”. God used them to teach me things I did not know. He used them to keep me accountable in my walk with Christ. I was so young and dumb in the Lord; I think they never thought I would make it. That was four decades ago.

I do not stay in touch with “Peter” and “Paul”. I do not see them. They live in different places. But I think if they saw my walk with Christ, they would feel like Paul. They would be excited, 1) I made it at all, and 2) I am still standing fast in the Lord. Those two guys had a huge influence on my life at that tender age of my Christian walk. Like Paul, Silas, and Timothy had on the church at Thessalonica, those two guys had that kind of influence on my life.

DIGGING DEEPER

How about you? Are you standing fast? Are you standing firm in your walk with the Lord? In this letter to the church in Thessalonica, Paul encourages them to keep going. Let’s look at the last few verses of chapter 3, “may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father” (1 Thess 3:12-13 ESV).

Are you increasing in your walk with the Lord? Are you abounding in love for one another and for all? Are you establishing your heart blameless and in holiness before God? Are you continuing to grow in your walk with Christ? These are questions worth pondering today.

You may ask, “How do I continue to grow? How do I continue to strengthen my walk with the Lord?” No surprise, I would say first, stay in the Word of God each and every day of your life. Why? Because that is where we hear from the Lord. Secondly, pray to the Lord each and every day. Those two things, reading the Bible and praying, give you an intimacy with God unmatched in anything else you can do on a daily basis.

Thirdly, get yourself in a Bible-believing church where you can be challenged, where you can grow in your faith in Christ. Fourth, surround yourself with some Christian friends, maybe in a home group, or maybe in a Bible study. Keep yourself connected to the body of Christ.

I believe those were the things the church in Thessalonica was doing. Those are the things we can do today. Let’s pray.

PRAYER

Father, some today might be suffering affliction. They may be suffering persecution for their faith in You. If so, we pray they would be strengthened by this passage and they would stand firm, hold fast, for You this day. Beyond just standing, Lord, I hope we continue to walk, walk toward You.

I pray, Lord, that all of us would spend time each and every day in a portion of Your Word so we can hear from You. We would also lay our petitions at Your feet so You can hear from us and we can have intimacy with You.

Also, Lord, I pray for our churches. Strengthen our pastors and strengthen the preaching they do, so that it would be truly of the Word, and that we could grow thereby.

And lastly, Lord, surround us with some Christian friends, people who can hold us accountable, people who can help us grow in You. Keep us connected to You and the body of Christ. By doing so, we will grow in our walk with You, and we will be pleasing in Your sight. So let it be written, so let it be done. In the name of Jesus, amen.