Love and Perseverance

 In any endeavor of life there are certain essentials that we must pursue to be successful. If we are an athlete, we must train our body and our mind to continue to get better and better at our sport. If we are a scholar, we must continue to study and to grow in the knowledge of our expertise. The same is true for us, as Christians. We must adhere to certain essentials to live a life pleasing to our Lord Jesus Christ.

Here in the book of II Thessalonians we find 2 of those essentials. (II Thessalonians 3:5) Paul says a brief prayer for the believers that God would direct their hearts to the love of God and to the perseverance of Christ. Both of these qualities are necessary for us to live the Christian life well. Let's stop to consider each one.

We need to have our heart set on the love of God. We need to continually remember His great love for us that He would send His Only-begotten Son to the earth to die for our sins and enable us to have a close relationship with Him. That is God's heart, because He is love, and He loves all of us. Then, we need to make sure we love God and others with this unselfish, unconditional love of our Father.

The Christian life is not easy, as we are loving the Lord and others in this way. We will be tempted to give up. It will seem like it is not worth the hurts and difficulties. However, Christ did not give up until He finished His work on the cross, and we must set our hearts on having that perseverance that He had for us. In fact, He is still praying for us right now. He will not stop doing the Father's will, nor should we.

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Tomorrow, I intend to read I Timothy 1-3.