1 Thessalonians
To start out ladies I’m going to say that for a good majority of this year I went weeks without studying the Bible or even picking it up. I had no excuse…I have 8 apps that have Bible’s on my phone, a Bible in my car, and a Bible by my bed. So you see it wasn’t for lack of material or good resources. It was something within me that couldn’t make me pick up one of those books.
But then the other day I went through yet another trial this year and I didn’t know where to turn…so I turned back to God. It felt like my own revival. I know that in many cases there is alot of backlash from churches dealing with single moms going to their services, even though that’s really not the “Christian Way”. I haven’t been to church in years so that could be part of why I fell out of my bible readings. It could be I was sick, it could be I was scary, it could have been any number of reasons. I really don’t know.
I can tell you now though how much more content I feel in my life now that I am back into my bible readings, even though I’m a single mom. My daughter and I are back to when pulling out her bible and reading/looking through it.
So now that takes me to the actual bible book and study I have been doing. I have been in 1 Thessalonians, during this revival time. It’s nothing too convicting to start out, but its just the right amount of heart warming to lure a person back to the Bible who has fallen astray.
It starts out with a second called salutations and things in the KJV. One of there verses that caught my eye (1 Thessalonians 1:3) seems to illustrate the things people will remember about you. When I read this passage I thought of the importance of it. In the long haul people aren’t going to remember you were a teen knock up, or a young single mom, they are going to remember your faith, your love, and your patience in Christ and with others. It’s the feelings people get when around you that they will remember, not actually the nitty gritty of what you did. The judgement of being a single mom can be daunting, but in God lies our hope for a better life, and that we can change. We don’t have to live in the shadow of past sin ladies!
As I move on to Thessalonians 2. The next verse that strikes me is the later part of 1 Thessalonians 2:4. Which says, “…God, which trieth our hearts.” It stickers me because I know it’s true. This year has been a hard one to hold my faith in God. It’s been trying since January. My child, my little baby girl, spent along time in and out of sickness. Most of the rest of my family has falling sick with something, from heart problems to stomach problems. It feels like my family is falling apart. So, yes Good does try our hearts. And the million dollar question I’m wondering is: Did I pass?
Honestly I believe I did, because bi was able to come back to the faith even though there where long lapses where I didn’t read my Bible, and I couldn’t bring myself to pray.
While staying in the faith is such a part of being a “good Christian”. One of the things 1 Thessalonians goes back to is how you treat people. We know from earlier that this is how we will be remembered. 1 Thessalonians 2:7 says: “But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her child.” This is how a good Christian woman is supposed to behave: gently.
While we are supposed to act gently we are also supposed to act Blamelessly, Holy, Justified. Now this isn’t one I understand to the fullest. It stems from 1 Thessalonians 2:10 which says: “Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holy and justified and unblameably we have behaved ourselves among you who believe.” This describes how we ought to act around others.
Since this book of the bible centers on how to be a good Christian, it makes since that there is yet another verse on how we should behave, ” And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your hands, as we commanded you.” (1 Thessalonians 4:11). In my opinion I interpreted this to mean that you be quiet and respectful to others, in a way that you don’t gossip. I think it also means don’t be lazy.
Once you get to 1 Thessalonians 5, you have arrived upon a more specified list of ways to be a good Christian. But first there’s a warning: be sober and filled with God’s light, or darkness will get in. This concept is generated from reading 1 Thessalonians 5:7-8. “For they that sleep in the night, and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for as an helmet the hope of salvation.”
Now we have a list of seven tips that Paul gives us in verses 16-22. You could spend a day of the week thinking on each of these tips.
The last seven tips for being a good Christian:
1.) Rejoice evermore (5:16)
2.) Pray without ceasing (5:17)
3.) In everything give thanks…(5:18)
4.) Don’t quench the spirit (5:19)
5.) Despise not the prophesyings (5:20)
6.) Hold on to the good (5:21)
7.) Stay away from evil (5:22)
That just about wraps it up ladies. I didn’t write this post in any way to discourage you from picking up your Bible’s again (or for the first time). Single mama I wrote this post to tell you that no mater what God’s Grace is ENOUGH! I know sometimes I get lost, and sometimes it’s hard to know how we should act. Sometimes we just need a refresher. For me this book of the Bible is that refresher. I want to be the very best mother, and person I can be so I set an example to my little one. This book of the Bible is filled with pointers on how to go about it! I hope this post was able to get you started on a long journey of bible reading.
Additional resources:
(Some of my favorite ministries)
Scripture list from today:
