Evangelical Lutheran Diocese of North America

Thursday after the Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity Sunday

Posted on September 9, 2021 by Pastor Dulas under Devotions
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Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 1:2-10 (NKJV)
 
1:2 We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers, 3 remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of our God and Father, 4 knowing, beloved brethren, your election by God. 5 For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance, as you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake.
 
6 And you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit, 7 so that you became examples to all in Macedonia and Achaia who believe. 8 For from you the word of the Lord has sounded forth, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place. Your faith toward God has gone out, so that we do not need to say anything. 9 For they themselves declare concerning us what manner of entry we had to you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10 and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.
 
Devotion
 
God creates faith in us by the work of the Holy Spirit through the Word and the Sacraments. And when faith manifests itself—when faith becomes active and relies on the promises made by God—hope comes riding over the horizon. Without faith in God and His promises made in Christ, there is no hope.
 
Likewise, hope brings love to the fore. Hope manifests labors and shares the love of God with neighbors, friends, relatives, and all those with whom we come in contact. With hope comes love, for God and man.
 
Thus it is that Paul speaks of faith, love, and hope as follows: “remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of our God and Father, knowing, beloved brethren, your election by God.” God’s election is the reason for any good thing in us. God-given faith produces hope in us. This hope, based on Christ’s merits, is the reason that we are active in love for God and man. Thanks be to God for all His many benefits to us.
 
Prayer: Keep, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy Church with Thy perpetual mercy; and, because the frailty of man without Thee cannot but fall, keep us ever by Thy help from all things hurtful, and lead us to all things profitable to our salvation; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end.
 
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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