Evangelical Lutheran Diocese of North America

Saturday after the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity Sunday

Posted on September 5, 2020 by Pastor Dulas under Devotions
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Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 4:8-12 (NKJV)
 
4:8 Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit.
 
9 But concerning brotherly love you have no need that I should write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another; 10 and indeed you do so toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, that you increase more and more; 11 that you also aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you, 12 that you may walk properly toward those who are outside, and that you may lack nothing.
 
Devotion
 
“Aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands.”
 
The Apostle encourages a quiet life, minding our own business, and doing something productive. Not very flashy, is it? Consider all the good works to which people were encouraged in the Middle Ages: going on pilgrimages, fighting in a crusade, becoming monks or nuns, venerating sacred relics. That stuff has some flash! But its allure should give us pause. What seems so flashy and spiritual often puts the spotlight on ourselves rather than on Christ! Where is Christ in the flashy things? Where is His cross?
 
That which distracts from Christ, rather than drawing us to Him, should most certainly not be received as “Christian”! Instead, we take the day-to-day chores associated with our vocations and sincerely seek to perform them to the glory of God. That completely changes them from self-aggrandizing works to God-glorifying works, as we humbly perform them in a spirit of sincere gratitude for the salvation we have in Christ Jesus.
 
Prayer: Almighty and Merciful God, of whose only gift it cometh that Thy faithful people do unto Thee true and laudable service, grant, we beseech Thee, that we may so faithfully serve Thee in this life that we fail not finally to attain Thy heavenly promises; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord. Amen.
 
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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