They’re All Stark Raving Mad
2 Thessalonians 3:1-3 And now, brothers and sisters, pray for us. Pray that the Lord's teaching will continue to spread quickly. And pray that people will give honour to that teaching, the same as happened with you. And pray that we will be protected from crooked and evil people. Not everyone believes in the Lord, you know. But the Lord is faithful. He will give you strength and protect you from the Evil One.
So you’re out there. You’re doing good. You’re even doing good things for God. And yet it’s like everyone wants to come after you with a pick axe. The whole world seems, quite frankly, to have gone stark, raving mad. You’re honouring God. It should be just a bit easier than this, surely!
If that’s how it feels for you some days, then let me tell you, you’re in pretty good company. Because that’s exactly where the Apostle Paul found himself – and remember, he’s the guy whom God had write almost half the books in the New Testament.
And now, brothers and sisters, pray for us. Pray that the Lord’s teaching will continue to spread quickly. And pray that people will give honour to that teaching, the same as happened with you. And pray that we will be protected from crooked and evil people. Not everyone believes in the Lord, you know. But the Lord is faithful. He will give you strength and protect you from the Evil One. (2 Thessalonians 3:1-3)
So Paul had some real challenges here. And if you read the rest of his story throughout the New Testament, you discover he had a terrible time of things – beaten by, imprisoned by, mocked by, shipwrecked by, and opposed by, it would seem, at every “by”, as he puts it “crooked and evil people”. So much so, that here He’s asking his friends in the church at Thessalonica to pray for him, to help him get through these difficult times.
Now you’d imagine, wouldn’t you, that by the time you get to Paul’s level in the pecking order, you’d be immune from all that sort of rubbish. We have this idea that God rewards us when we serve Him diligently, by making it that bit easier day-by-day.
But my observation is that exactly the opposite is true. The more Paul got on with the business of serving God, the harder it became for him. And the more you and I get on with business of living our lives for Jesus, sharing His love into this lost and hurting world, let me tell you, the more the enemy comes after us with a pickaxe.
But it’s in that place, that you discover that God is faithful. It’s in that place, that you discover His strength and His protection for you.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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