2 Thessalonians 3:1-5 ESV
“Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you, and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. For not all have faith. But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one. And we have confidence in the Lord about you, that you are doing and will do the things that we command. May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.”
If we are followers of Jesus Christ, and if we are spreading
the truth of the gospel of Christ to the people living on this earth, even to
those professing faith in Jesus Christ, and if we are following our Lord in
obedience and in surrender to his will, and if we are walking in holiness and
righteousness, but not necessarily in sinless perfection, the Evil One is going
to be against us and he will be out to attack us in any which way he can.
But the Lord is our protector from the Evil One and from
wicked and evil human beings. But that protection doesn’t necessarily mean that
we won’t be hated and persecuted and have all sorts of evil spoken against us.
We will. Jesus said that we will. For not all people who profess faith in Jesus
Christ have genuine walks of faith in our Lord. For there are many professers
of faith in Jesus Christ who are still engaged in deliberate and habitual sin.
And so some or many of them are going to oppose us, and they
may even do evil against us to try to hurt us or to try to stop us from sharing
the gospel of Christ with the people. So, if God allows this, which he does,
how does that protect us from evil? He protects us by giving us his strength
and endurance and wisdom in these situations so that we don’t succumb to the
evil, and so that we don’t let it take us out to where we then back down.
So, in your trials, let the Lord strengthen and help you. Let
him teach you what you need to learn, and then grow in him, and persevere even
in times of great difficulty or severe opposition. And keep on walking the walk
and sharing Jesus and his gospel. And then forgive those who are treating you
badly, and love them, and do good to them in return for the evil that they are
doing against you, and in that way you overcome the Evil One.
Now, the Lord had me do another video talk today on this
passage of Scripture, so I am going to share it with you here for your
encouragement:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpMTFfgG43A
The Spirit Calling
An Original Work /
November 12, 2019
Hear the Spirit calling.
He’ll keep you from falling.
Tenderly He’s calling,
“Come and follow Him.”
Walk with Jesus daily.
Don’t give in to lazy.
Folks may call you crazy.
Fellowship with Him.
Follow where He leads you.
Eat what Jesus feeds you.
His love will renew you
If you follow Him.
Do what Jesus tells you.
Don’t let your faith fail you.
His love will avail you
If you walk with Him.
Jesus, Lord and Savior,
Reigneth now forever.
He gave us His favor
So we’d live with Him.
Turning now from our sin,
Holy Spirit live-in.
Holiness we walk in,
Purified by Him.
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