March 7 - 1 Thessalonians 2:13-16
And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers. For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews, who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displease God and oppose all mankind by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved—so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them at last!
I don’t know that I ever really thought about what Paul was saying until today. In his day, one thing that regularly happened was that philosophers and thinkers would sit around and discuss topics and issues … their words were then carried and further developed by others. When the Thessalonians heard the word of God, they understood and treated it differently than they would those discussions. The recognized that they were hearing the word of God, not words of men.
For the most part, we limit our hearing of the word of God to Sunday mornings at church. Some of us might be involved in a weekly Bible study or we might read scripture verses that come into us as devotionals every day. But, honestly, we recognize the word of God oftentimes because it is very location specific.
What if God were trying to speak to us somewhere else through a vehicle we hadn’t ever expected? How would we react? Would we distrust the message because it didn’t come to us in a traditional manner?
The Thessalonians were so open to hear God speaking to them. They also ended up facing persecution as a result of their acceptance and subsequent life changes, but that didn’t matter to them. God’s word was more important than life itself.
Where might you be hearing His voice today? What is He asking you to do?
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