This past week I challenged our
church staff to join me in memorizing some verses. I also asked from of our church peeps to join
in too. Now it is your turn. Will you join me?
The verses below is part of what I
shared Sunday morning and is also the passage that I asked people to memorize
with me. Read through it a few times…
Every time I
think of you, I give thanks to my God. 4 Whenever I pray, I make my
requests for all of you with joy, 5 for
you have been my partners in spreading the Good News about Christ from the time
you first heard it until now. 6 And I am certain that God, who
began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally
finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.
As we talked about yesterday, when
God changes us there are responses that we should have. Thanks.
Joy. Continued expectation that
God keeps on working.
These verses popped out at me last
week in a big way. God changes us and
leaves us very different. That is
something that we all should strive for and want more of. Hope that makes sense. I sat last night listening to several people
talk about how God has changed their lives, and I have to admit that it never
gets old.
Those verses speak from the
past. But they also step forward
anticipating a great future. When Paul
wrote “every time I think of you”, he is doing one thing we all do pretty well. That is remembering. Things from our past stick out in our
minds. They are points of learning and
of historical and personal value. There
are many spiritual times that stick out in my mind, and they leave me thanking
God.
Another huge part of growing in our
faith is the fact that prayer has become an even more important part of our
lives. It does us good, makes us happy
and even fills us with joy when we pray for the people we care about.
It really is all about the spreading
of the Good News of Jesus. As Colossians
1:6 says the truth that changed us is still changing others. By our testimonies, our serving and our
worshipping we are leading people to see, experience and come to know
Jesus. We are partners in this. Back to the point of Paul remembering, it is
incredible to see that we are all on the same team and sharing with more people
that Jesus saves.
The verses above ends with the
conviction that God is still at work. He
began working in our lives some time ago.
God will continue to work in our lives.
We are convinced that God is doing awesome work in us and through us.
I pray that we will be people who
are thankful and have lots of joy. I
pray that we recognize what God is doing and that He is not done. May our response to what God is doing lead
others to meet our God.
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