March 29 - 2 Thessalonians 3:1-5

March 29 - 2 Thessalonians 3:1-5

Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you, and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. For not all have faith. But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one. And we have confidence in the Lord about you, that you are doing and will do the things that we command. May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.

One of the most difficult things our family ever did was move away from a community. It was heart wrenching for all of us, but Mom and Dad never chose to make a move without a lot of prayer and consideration.

After the move had been made, though, one thing that always came up was whether or not our former congregation would be able to continue with ministry that had been built.  Because of the manner in which the United Methodist Church moves its pastors around, neither the church nor the pastor has much input and Dad was always concerned (and generally with good reason) that the person who followed him would destroy all of his good work.  It was then up to the people to hold fast to the relationship they had built with God and with each other.

One summer, a small group of people from the church we had just left ended up in our living room in tears because of the trouble that was already occurring due to the ineptitude of the new pastor.  They asked if there was anything that could be done to bring Dad back.

He had to be firm with them and remind them that they would discredit his ministry completely if they were so reliant on him that they wouldn't rely on God.  He was no longer able to spoon feed them God’s word; it was time for them to pick up the fork and feed themselves.

Though the words seemed harsh, they made a difference.  Many of these people have since taken God’s word to hundreds, if not thousands, of others.  We do have to come to a point where we move past the human minister in front of us to a direct relationship with God.

Paul had confidence in the Lord about the Thessalonians. I have confidence about you.  Where will you go from here?