May 9, 2024

Devotional for May 9, 2024

Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 – “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.  The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.”

What it means

This is at the tail end of Paul’s first letter to the church at Thessalonica, and he is spending time in chapter 5 talking about the day of The Lord, or when He will come to take His children.  He has several useful bits of information as we make preparations for His coming.  First of all, no one knows when that day will be.  It could be today, tomorrow, a year from now, 10 years…no one knows.  We all try to make our best guess, but verse 2 tells us that He will come “like a thief in the night.”  Secondly, no one will escape it…one way or another, we will leave this earth, and we had better be prepared for it.  Verse 23 tells us that we are supposed to be blameless at His coming.  Uh oh…don’t know about you, but I’m far from that, unfortunately.  No matter how hard I try, I have much to be blamed for, and rightfully so.  But read on – verse 24 tells that we don’t have to get there on our own.  “The one who calls you is faithful, and He will do it.”  Whew…good news for me – as usual, Jesus makes the impossible…possible.  He extends his arm of grace and mercy, and always extends the invitation for us to come be with Him.  You see, when we are in Christ, we are blameless – and we’ll be ready for His coming.

What it means to me

These are crazy times that we are living in.  Many of us are eager to point the finger at everybody else and show how wrong they are, but if we’re truthful about this…none of us is blameless.  We all have times that we fall short of the goal, and that’s nothing to be ashamed of, it’s just a fact of our imperfect human nature.  So let’s accept that – but then, allow The One who is able to wipe away our sin to do exactly that.  We are a child of The King – The One who will make us presentable before we come to His Father one day.  Praise The Lord for His grace, His mercy, and His great love for all of us!

Love you, take care and we’ll talk on Sunday!

In Christ,

Brian