DEVOTION
THE 2ND LETTER TO THE THESSALONIANS
DIVINE INFLUENCE
2 Thess 2:16-17
16 May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us
and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, 17 encourage your
hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.
NIV
As we read these words, we are becoming convince more and more that
every aspect of our lives is due to the grace of God. Again, we remind ourselves
that grace in this context as well as in many other scriptures can be seen as
His divine influence upon our hearts and how that is reflected in our lives. So
then, because he loves, he gives us his divine influence upon our hearts, which
gives us eternal encouragement and good hope. This eternal encouragement in the
Greek reads as everlasting calling near, or summons or exhortation. God is always
doing all of that. He always calls us near to him, he always summons us and
exhorts us or, that word could also be seen as comforting us. All of those are
indeed an encouragement, as God is working in our lives, and how awesome is
that. To know the maker of the whole universe, the creator of life, is at work
in our heart, influencing us with a good hope that, in fact, does encourage our
hearts and strengthens our resolve in all we do and say so that our life will
reflect his glory to the world around us. This is a good remember to us that in
and of ourselves we cannot do and say anything that is good. If we rely on ourselves,
we are going to fail time and time again. However, we do not have to rely on ourselves
for God’s divine influence is working in our hearts and he is the one who
started that work, and He is the one who will complete it. What we have to do
is simply yield to his influence. Sometimes that is the most difficult thing to
do, as our “self” likes to have its way all too often and even likes to have
some of the credit for what we do and say. We want to have that control over
how we live our lives and we even make up certain rules to live by so we can
feel good about ourselves because we are abiding by our own set of rules for
Christian living. That is not to say that we should live free as the wind and
do whatever we desire. By no means should we throw all caution to the wind.
But, we do need to yield to the divine influence of the Lord upon our hearts
and then we would naturally do that which is good and use the right words, to
build each other up until we all reach the unity in the faith. When we can
admit that we are weak, He is the one who gives us strength. God is the one who
works in and through us so that we reflect his glory. Apart from Him, we can do
nothing, but as long as we are connected, as long as we are being influenced by
Him, drawing our life from Him, we will do and say that which is good.
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