Rejoice, Pray, And Give Thanks

I Thessalonians 5:12-28

Our New Testament reading for this 3rd week of Advent contains some short and concise statements from the Apostle Paul, to help fellow believers live a godly and successful Christian life.  Just like following a recipe’s directions can lead to a better meal, if we followed each of these exhortations, our Christian spiritual life would be much stronger.  With approximately a dozen or so instructions in these verses, I want to focus on just a few, primarily those found in verses 16, 17, and 18, which call us to rejoice, pray, and give thanks. These three are critical steps to spiritual success.

Rejoicing or having joy in one’s life is not necessarily the same thing as being “happy” (vs. 16).  There are many circumstances we can find ourselves in that do not make us happy, such as chronic illness, loss of a job, death of a loved one, etc.  In the midst of each of these, though, we can still rejoice in the Lord, and have His joy in our hearts.  Happiness is dependent on our outward circumstances, but joy is dependent on our inner relationship with the Lord.

The second of our three is prayer.  Paul exhorts us in verse 17 to “pray without ceasing”.  When God tells us to pray continually this doesn’t mean that we have to be continually, 24 hours a day, on our knees praying.  Instead, we should have a prayerful attitude at all times.  Throughout our day we can pray frequent, spontaneous, short prayers, just like having an ongoing conversation with God all day long.  Being in frequent prayer acknowledges our dependence on God.  There is nothing either too big or too small to bring to Him in prayer. When God tells us to pray continually, we can rest assured that He hears and answers our prayers.  Of course we need to be sure that we are in a right relationship with God by trusting in Jesus as our Savior.

Our third exhortation to live a strong, Christian life is to give thanks to God in everything (vs. 18).  We should be grateful to God even in trying and difficult times.  He  knows and is closely involved in what we go through.  God has promised to work everything out for our good if we have faith and trust Him (Romans 8:28).  He can use the worst things we go through for our good.  This verse isn’t saying that we necessarily have to be thankful for everything.  Some things that happen to us are evil - an assault, a murder in our family, etc. However, God tells us to be thankful in everything.  When evil strikes we can be thankful that God is with us, walking with us, and be thankful for the good He will bring from these circumstances.

Thankfulness and gratitude keeps us aware of God’s presence.  That will strengthen our trust and our witness to others. When we show thankfulness in difficult circumstances, people pay attention.  There are many times we might not feel thankful.  It is then that we give thanks to God as an act of faith and obedience.  Trust Him that He will walk with us through the darkness and through what lies ahead.

Our joy, prayers and thankfulness should not fluctuate with our circumstances or feelings.  Doing God’s will makes it easier to rejoice and give thanks.  God can release great power when we give Him thanks and praise.  Praise to God puts Satan and the demons to flight.  Have a heart full of thankfulness and keep praising Him.

Just a few more thoughts on some of the remaining verses.  We need to be sure that we do not give evil a foothold in our life (vs. 22).  If Satan can get a toe in the door of our life, he will kick the door down, come in, and ravage our life and soul.  A Christian should avoid tempting situations and concentrate on obeying God.

Finally, whatever God tells us to do, He is faithful to bring it to pass (vs. 24). He doesn’t give us a task, and then abandon us.  God will provide for our needs, and bring success to the task He assigned us if we obey Him.