Spend time in prayer and silence with God, asking Him to meet with you and speak to you.
Bible Reading
For you remember our labor and hardship, brothers and sisters. Working night and day so that we would not burden any of you, we preached God’s gospel to you. You are witnesses, and so is God, of how devoutly, righteously, and blamelessly we conducted ourselves with you believers. As you know, like a father with his own children, we encouraged, comforted, and implored each one of you to live a life worthy of God, who calls you into His own kingdom and glory. This is why we constantly thank God, because when you received the Word that you heard from us, you welcomed it not as a human message, but as it truly is, the Word of God, which also works effectively in you who believe.
– 1 Thessalonians 2:9-13
Devotion
Once again Paul defends his discipleship work in their community. He describes his work among them as a “father with his own children…encouraging, comforting, and imploring them to live a life worthy of God.” Paul didn’t just preach the gospel and move on to the next city. He lived among the Thessalonians, encouraging and challenging them with the truth of God’s Word. Paul knew this was the best way to help them grow in their new-found faith. He invested his life into faithful believers who would then repeat what he had done. This is referring to the process of multiplication. For Christianity to spread to the ends of the earth, first it had to take deep root in the lives of those who God called. These new truths had to be internalized in the hearts and lives of those new believers. Once internalized, this process had to be duplicated, so that, future generations would hear the gospel and respond to God’s call to salvation.
The Big Question
Where are you at in this process? Has God’s Word taken deep root in your life? Are you being transformed into a new creation? Are you multiplying this process by investing spiritually into the lives of others? How are you living out God’s Word today? Who are you pouring into?
Conclude your time in prayer and silence, reflecting on what God revealed to you today.