1 Thess 5:16-18
“Be cheerful no matter what; pray all the time; thank God no
matter what happens. This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus
to live.”
Filled with good cheer=cheerful. It seems more culturally appropriate to live
by our emotions. To live so caffeinated that we are highly efficient…but rather
robotic interpersonally. How far from
the ideal we have wandered!
Warm-hearted, loving people is what God had in mind- simply mirroring
his own warm-heartedness! Its not
something we have to manufacture- merely something we relay to others as we
receive it!
When once we look fully into God’s truth – that he loves us
passionately, shamelessly with no regard for His dignity or self-respect…..then
and only then will we grasp who we are, in Him.
Then and only then can we understand how beloved others are too- and
begin to treat them as He does.
Being cheerful is not meant to be a shallow, plastic-smiled
behavior. Instead it is the “filled with good cheer” security of heart that
knows how beloved we are and cannot help but smile and share it with others.
That deep knowing-I’m-loved state allows us to trust God
with whatever comes our way. In fact, we
can thank God for all of it- even when it appears to be heading in a
frightening or insecure direction!
Knowing HIM cancels out fear.
Fear is the direct opposite to confident trust. It is important to recognize how naturally we
fear God – he is invisible, all –powerful, sees everything and knows
everything. Perhaps our FIRST response of fear only means we understand whom we
are dealing with. To have that change, or perhaps grow into confident trust is
a miracle all by itself.
It takes much reassuring on God’s part before we can grasp
that his entire attitude toward us is love, more love and an almost
embarrassing amount of love!! (sometimes I think we’d prefer he’d just be mad
at us…how do we handle all that love!??)
But we need to square with being loved that much if we are
to be salt and light to the world. Begin
each day reminding yourself that God has been staring at you, lovingly, all
night. Remember that if God had a wallet, your picture would be in it. He’s
just crazy about you!!! From that
starting place, we can live out the truth of this verse…and become agents of
grace in this hurting, misguided world of people he loves so dearly.
Amen.