I Thessalonians 2:3
“We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is fitting, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of every one of you all abounds toward each other.”
Paul is thankful for the Thessalonian believers. They are his spiritual children. He shared the good news with them and they responded. He established the Thessalonian church and they have been growing. They are one of the blessings and sources of joy in his life.
The Lord will put people in our lives that have the same affect. We will be blessed and filled with joy because of them. How does that happen? We need to be obedient to Him. The bible says not to “forsake the assembling of ourselves together”. That means we are to go to church. It best works to go to the weekend service and to be in a small group during the week. This puts us in relationship with others.
The small group allows us to study God’s Word together and to be involved socially. We rally to one another when one is down. We pray for each other. We are challenged and become better. We belong and feel loved. We agree with Paul in that we are blessed by and give thanks for this group.
We develop relationships in many other settings: neighborhood, workplace, school, the gym, common interests and so on. We find our place and connect with others. Most that we bump into and see won’t be categorized. We are to love all. Some will be faith relationships and some will be ones in which we will sow seeds of faith. The dozens of others we are to love and enjoy. God knows our place with them, we may not. These also are a blessing.
While we will be blessed by all relationships even though some will be difficult. We will grow in patience and in others ways. Some of our greatest maturity comes from the difficult ones. We are to rejoice in these.
Philippians 2:12 says to “work out your salvation”. We’ve been born again. God’s nature is in us. Unfortunately, our bodies don’t share that. As we live our days, we pray for patience and ask Him for wisdom and the resources in our struggles we find the people that once distressed us, no longer do so. We can rejoice and be thankful for them.
Lord, thank You for the blessing that people bring us. Help us to yield to You in the relationships You bring our way.