God’s Will - Part 3

Holiness. Witnessing. Those were the first two topics we looked at that are the will of God for the Christian life. We have five more to go. Today we go back to Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians for the third way in which we fulfill the will of God. This one is just one sentence out of a whole paragraph that could be argued as God’s will for our lives.

If you get a chance today, read 1 Thessalonians 5:12-22 in it’s entirety to get the whole context of what Paul is saying to the believers in Thessalonica.  But for this post we are going to look at just one sentence, three short verses, to see God’s will for our lives.  “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” - 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

We get three commands in one and once again Paul makes it a point to specifically tell us that these things are the will of God. First, we are to rejoice always!  That’s hard to do, if we want to be honest about it. It’s hard to rejoice in a broken relationship, it’s hard to rejoice in the illness of a loved one and it’s hard to rejoice in the death of those we love. But we are expected to rejoice because this world is not our home. This life is the worst it will ever be for a Christian. For the non-Christian, this is the best life will ever be. So rejoice!

Second, we are to pray without ceasing. That phrase “without ceasing” means that we do it in all circumstances. When we wake up, when we drive to work, while we are eating, when we face issues, and before we go to bed. Our prayer life is our direct connection to the will of God. I wish my prayer life was better than it is (just being honest).

Finally, we are commanded to give thanks in all circumstances. We have so much to be thankful for, I couldn’t even begin to list all the things in this little post. Our family started something new this year; at the end of each week we write on a piece of paper the things we were thankful for this past week and put it in a jar. Our plan is to go back through them at the end of the year and remember all the things God blessed us with in 2019.

Rejoice always!
Pray without ceasing!
Give thanks in all circumstances!
This is the will of God!

Have a great day and God bless.