When we surrender to God’s grace and accept our need for his work in our lives, people see that they too may find something beyond what they have placed their trust in. The faith of the Thessalonians that was conceived during difficult circumstances and has inspired people throughout it's region.
1 Thessalonians 1:2-10
Thanksgiving for the Thessalonians’ Faith
2 We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers. 3 We 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.
4 For we know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that he has chosen you, 5 because our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake. 6 You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. 7 And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. 8 The Lord’s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore we do not need to say anything about it, 9 for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.
Ruth was of another nationality and another faith, and this meant changing both but she was determined to leave her home in Moab and move with Naomi in Bethlehem in Judah as in Ruth 1:8-18. The Moabites, like the Hebrews, were a distinct people. Their god was Chemosh, and he differed significantly from Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews.
Ruth 1:8-18
8 Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the Lord show you kindness, as you have shown kindness to your dead husbands and to me. 9 May theLord grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.”
Then she kissed them goodbye and they wept aloud 10 and said to her, “We will go back with you to your people.”
11 But Naomi said, “Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands? 12 Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me—even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons— 13 would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord’s hand has turned against me!”
14 At this they wept aloud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her.
15 “Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.”
16 But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.” 18 When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.
Our response to the Gospel in both word and deed has more than just an effect on our own faith journey because when we exercise our faith and demonstrate our convictions of faith, we impact the people and the world around us. The Church's greatest need is for people with winsome commitment to Christ that people around them "believe in their belief." Therefore, our confident yet courageous faith in the Lord may be exactly what someone else needs which is contagious whereby they are encouraged to follow, belief and trust the Lord like we do.
Matthew 9:37-38
“The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.
Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
Glory to God
for raising up more workers for the harvest!
Faith that produces hope in the middle of the storms of life is a contagious testimony to the truth of God as in Acts 27:25 where Paul said "So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me.' God does not promise us a smooth sailing life but provides us with hope through our faith and fear in Him.
2 Corinthians 3:3-5
3 You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
4 Such confidence we have through Christ before God. 5 Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God.
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