Begin with 2 minutes of silence and stillness before God.

When I was younger, my grandfather was the epitome of holiness in my eyes. In him, I saw the perfect example of what it meant to lead a Christian life. He kept his Bible by his chair in the living room. I would catch him praying continuously throughout the day. He loved his neighbor. He loved us endlessly. In my young and naive eyes, he was perfect.

In 1 Thessalonians 4, we are called to be sanctified and to live a holy life. Those are some big churchy words, and it wasn’t much later in my life that I truly learned what they meant. Sanctified essentially means that the Holy Spirit has changed us so that we can be holy, or to be more like God. Chapter four goes on to tell us examples of how to become holier. We should avoid sexual immorality, which includes lusting after others, and we should not wrong our brothers or sisters.

I had a note in the margins of my Bible for Psalm 19. This Psalms goes into how following God’s commands can bless a person. His law revives our souls, His commands are radiant and bring us light, and His ordinances that are sure and sweeter than honey are just a few that are taken from the passage. While the Lord never ensures an easy life for those who follow Him, He does ensure a blessing. “In keeping them, there is a great reward.”
As I grew older, I realized that my grandfather was not perfect. He sinned just like the rest of us. He had weaknesses just like the next person, but instead of sitting in those weaknesses and being passive, he strived to be more like Christ. We’re all going to stumble. We will have missteps and have moments where we fall on our knees in failure.

Thankfully, through Jesus’s suffering, we are cleansed white as snow.

Just like Paul urged the believers in Macedonia to become more holy and love their neighbors more than they already did, I urge you to search your heart for any hidden sins that are preventing you from becoming more holy and more like Christ.

Take 2 minutes to reflect in silence.

Reflection:

• Take a moment to pray through Psalm 19:12-14, “Who can discern his errors? Forgive my hidden faults. Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then will I be blameless, innocent of great transgression? May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.”

Family Devo: 1 Thessalonians 4

By: Anna Beth Scott

When partnering with your family to know, love, and follow Jesus, we strive to create and share content filtered by the Head-Heart-Hands model.   

Head: the knowledge of God and His Word | Heart: the personal connection from scripture | Hands: a missional mindset  

Head

Paul continues his letter to the church in Thessalonica with encouragement to live a life consistent with the Gospel, pleasing to God.  In verses 11 and 12, he tells the church to lead a quiet life and work with their hands.  Christians in Thessalonica were not respected by non-believers.  In fact, they were being persecuted pretty heavily.  Paul is encouraging the church to win the respect of the non-believers by working really hard at their jobs and serving others.  If they are farmers, be the best farmers in the area.  If they are carpenters, build the strongest buildings in the town.  Whatever their job was, Paul says to do it with integrity and serve others.  He also says to mind your own business and take care of your own affairs.  This reminds me of the saying, “Stay in your lane”.  In our culture, it means to not worry about what someone else is supposed to be doing, rather take care of your own responsibilities.  For Christians, it also means to do what God has called you to do, not what He’s called someone else to do.  Paul says when we work hard and focus on what God has called us to do, we will win the respect of other people and we won’t be dependent on anybody.

Heart

In our social media driven culture, it is challenging to live a quiet life and “stay in our own lane”.  Information is poured on us all day long about what other people are doing, how we’re supposed to be living, and how we’re supposed to look.  The desire to look good to other people has been around for a long time, but we experience opportunities to compare ourselves with other people constantly now that social media is such a huge part of our culture.  This is not how God says to live.  He says in 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 to “make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your hands”.  This challenges me to stop comparing my life to other people.  It reminds me to be confident in who God says I am and what He has called me to do.  To run my race, not someone else’s race.   

Hands

So how’s it going?  Are you leading a quiet life, running your race, and working hard?  Maybe you’ve gotten caught up in comparing your life to other people.  Here’s a chance to acknowledge it and trust that God has a good plan specifically for you.  Maybe you’ve slacked off in your job or at school, not realizing that God expects you to do it  to the best of your ability every day.  Maybe you’re not doing anything to serve other people.  Find a way to serve this week.   

Social media can be a good tool to make connections and encourage other people, but it can also be a tool of distraction.  If you have social media, I challenge you to ask yourself why you use it.  Ask God to reveal to you how you’re using it and if that needs to change.   

Prayer: Father, thank You for Paul’s letter.  Thank You that the words You gave him all those years ago still apply to my life today.  Thank You for giving me purpose.  Help me to trust You more and do what You say.  Help me to understand what it means for me to live a quiet life, mind my own business, and work with my hands.  Help me to serve other people.  I love You.  In Jesus’s name, Amen.