Thanks

DEVOTION
1 THESSALONIANS
THANKS
1 Thess 1:1-3
1:1 Paul, Silas and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace and peace to you.
2 We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers. 3 We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
NIV
I think I fail at the part about thanking God for all my fellow believers. There are some of them I do thank God for whenever I think about them. Those who I hold a dear feeling toward do cause me to thank my God for their being a part of my life. I know nothing is by accident and my crossing paths and in fact joining upon a portion of the same path with certain individuals has been a part of Gods plan for me. Thanking God for them is a part of my communications with him whenever the Spirit brings them to my thoughts. It is those other fellow believers I think I forget to thank God for. Those who I do not know very well, nor do they know me well. Those who may even avoid me or I them because of some reason I cannot justify. I should be thanking God for them as well, even though they are not a direct part of my life not am I of theirs. Our parts but cross briefly on occasion but only with a head nod, or maybe even a hand shake and an obligatory “good morning” or “how ya doing”. Yet I wonder if it is only those I have a more intimate relationship with who are spoken of here. Those I know well I would know about their faith which produces works, and I would understand their love and how it prompts their labor for God, and I would be able to watch them endure because of being inspired by their hope in Jesus Christ. I would not be able to know all that about every fellow believer, but only those I travel with closely. So maybe I am not failing in this after all, because I do thank my God for these ones. I am grateful to my Lord for bringing them into my life and me into theirs. I know it has been orchestrated by the Spirit for such a purpose of bringing glory to God. So how could I not thank him and mention their names before him, giving him praise for bringing us together.
Thank you Father for those dear friends you have given to me and me to them.