Want to plan for the new year under God's blessing? I've found 4 blessings in 2 Thessalonians and have come up with 6 questions to help myself align with them.
I saw someone creating their vision board and I was asking them about their inspirational images, wondering if was something I should do.
Then we started talking about goals and how they relate to our life's purpose and I sort of blurted out...
My goal is to Live LIGHT and to help others Live LIGHT too. I want to Live Loved. I want to Live Intentional. I want to Live Generous. I want to Live Hopeful. I want to Live Today.
Then I remembered I already had a vision board...without the inspirational images, so I went home and added the images that are usually on my desktop and viola!
You can see that roadmap at https://revtrev.com/roadmap I do very little that's not public knowledge.
It's up to me to make the plans and up to me to keep in step with what the Spirit is leading me to do TODAY.
I don't have due dates, but I will if God tells me there's a date that something needs to get done. If I can get every coaching session, every class, every book, every ebook, every audiobook set up this year - Awesome. If it take the next 5 years...that's probably more realistic.
How do you plan for the new year?
We have friends who wait on God for a word for the year. I think it’s a good idea. I’ve tried it for a few years, but I’ve never really got a word I was really excited to embrace. “Long suffering” “tenacity”. I mean the weren’t bad, just not “Let’s do up shareable image good”.
So this year I started to look for blessings. I figured if I could find out what God wants to bless and just go along with that, it’s going to be a whole lot better. And I found a good one.
I found a blessing that I pray for myself and everyone for 2020. It's in 2 Thessalonians. As I studied the context for it I actually found 3 other blessings in that letter that are all an incredible glimpse at God's will for us in the year to come.
It's more important to me that I please God in the day-to-day of everyday than I check off a to-list - even if checking off a to-do list is fun.
So I look for how God wants to bless me, and I line myself up for that blessing.
4 Blessings in 2 Thessalonians that help us to plan for the new year
So let's look at all 4 blessing in 2 Thessalonians. I'm going to read them out...because they are good. Then I'll unpack the verses they come from and see the challenges they have for us today. Then I'll read them again and we can reflect on them as we worship.
May God to enable you to live a life worthy of his call and may he give you the power to accomplish all the good things your faith prompts you to do.
May our Lord and our Father comfort you and strengthen you in every good thing you do and say.
May the Lord lead your hearts into a full understanding and expression of the love of God and the patient endurance that comes from Christ.
May the Lord of peace himself give you his peace at all times and in every situation.
4 Blessings 2 Thessalonians and what it means for us to help plan for the new year under God’s blessing
Background of book - In Acts 17 Paul was in Thessalonica and we see the start of the church. Those that didn’t accept his message started a riot and Paul and his companions had to move on to Berea.
Paul wrote to the church in Thessalonica because he heard they were still going through troubles. Timothy had returned to Paul in Athens with news of the church and it was suffering persecution.
Paul wrote them to encourage them that Jesus could return at any time, so keep on doing good. Then about 6 months later he had to write them another letter because what he wrote the first time, people began teaching that it already happened... and they missed it.
This is probably my brother - Pastor Shawn's - story to tell, but growing up at church a Christian movie meant it was a movie like "Thief in the night" - remember that movie from the 70's when the rapture took place and everyone who missed it had to figured out what happened and what to do? After one of those movies one Sunday night we all went to someone's house for snacks. Except Shawn fell was asleep under a pew and woke up to an empty church.
The same thing happened in Thessalonica. Not the cheesy 70's movie, but the thought that Jesus had already returned and they missed it.
It's into this atmosphere that Paul wrote his second letter. And he includes 4 incredible blessings that help us keep in step with His leading in the heart to come.
1. May God to enable you to live a life worthy of his call and may he give you the power to accomplish all the good things your faith prompts you to do.
So we keep on praying for you, asking our God to enable you to live a life worthy of his call. May he give you the power to accomplish all the good things your faith prompts you to do. 2 Thessalonians 1:11
May God enable you to live the life worthy...
Paul tells the the Philippians that we need to work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12) then goes on to tell us to live up to what we've already attained (Philippians 3:16). Peter tells us we have been given everything we need for living a godly life (2 Peter 1:3) but we need to do what we can to make our calling and election sure (2 Peter 1:5)
What I’m trying to point out is this… God enables you to live a life worthy
God's will for you is holiness (1 Thessalonians 4:3)
He enables you to live a godly life (2 Peter 1:3)
How awesome is that?
Yes, I have to do work to make it work But I need to learn to struggle with all His power that’s in work in me. (Colossians 1:29)
How’s that for a goal for 2020? It's a great way to plan for the new year to do everything with His power that at work in us.
Will you plan for the new year to work with God’s power that’s at work in you?
May God enable you to live the life worthy…of His call.
Remember Thessalonians problem...this is not "dream it and achieve it" theology. It’s not “the call on my life.”
This is "becoming more like Jesus in spite of (or because of) any of the troubles you find yourself in.
What is his call?
He has called us…
Servant (Romans 6:22)
Friend (John 15:14)
Child (Romans 8:14)
In one sense it is a progression,
You can’t be a friend before your a servant,
you won’t a child before you’re a friend.
in another sense you can’t leave one and move on to the other. Let me explain....
A servant obeys (Colossians 3:22). You are called a friend because you have obeyed (John 15:14) When you obey you abide with Jesus (John 15:10). As you abide with Jesus you keep in step with the Spirit (Galatians 5:24-25). All who keep in step with the Spirit are children of God (Romans 8:14)
So your calling of servant, friend and child means you need to
Obey, Abide and; Keep in step with the Spirit.
Will you be a servant, a friend and a child in the new year? Will you obey, abide and keep in step with the Spirit?
May God enable you to live the life worthy of His call.…May he give you the power to accomplish all the good things your faith prompts you to do.
We’ve already talked about his power at work within us and that we have everything we need to live a godly life.
Can you do good things not prompted by faith?
Anything not done in faith is sin (Romans 14:23)
I know I can do good things and my motivation can make it sin. And yet I can have His power to accomplish all the good things I do that are prompted by my faith.
What I mean by that is is my motivation for everything I do needs to be that I'm seeking His kingdom - righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:7).
Am I doing what I’m doing to see His Kingdom here on earth?
If I am, I am walking by faith because faith is what pleases God (Hebrews 11:6).
2 Questions you can ask yourself to help plan for the new year under God’s blessing
- Am I living a life worthy of his call?
- Are the good things I’m doing prompted by faith?
These are two of the questions that should help you make a plan for the new year. Let’s look at what else we can ask ourselves.
2. May our Lord and our Father comfort you and strengthen you in every good thing you do and say.
Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal comfort and a wonderful hope, comfort you and strengthen you in every good thing you do and say. 2 Thessalonians 2:16–17
…May our Lord and our Father comfort you
Why need comfort in doing good?
Doing good can lead to scary places. Thessalonians had outside persecution. The time is soon coming when more good will be called evil and more evil will be called good and you and I will need to decide “Do we do good or do we avoid conflict?”
Some of you may have already experienced it. You’ve learned to not talk politics or religion. I don’t care about politics, but you do need to be active in sharing your faith.
God has given you eternal comfort and a wonderful hope. He will comfort you in every good thing you do and say….every good thing your faith prompts you to do or say.
God is the God of all comfort (2 Corinthians 1:3-5)
All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. For the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ. 2 Corinthians 1:3-5
God comforts us in every good thing we say and do so we can comfort others.
Are you accepting God’s comfort in your life?
May our Lord and our Father comfort you and strengthen you in every good thing you do and say.
Why do we need to be strengthened in every good thing?
We can go weary in doing good (Galatians 6:9)
We’re told if we need strength we trust in the Lord (Isaiah 40:31)
Trusting in the Lord is active, not passive. It involves your whole heart. We’ll talk more about this in in a moment. You need to make the decision to trust. You need to do the action to show you trust and you need need to feel something - I’ll talk about this more a little later on - trusting God you feel peace.
1 more question you can ask yourself to help plan for the new year under God’s blessing
3. Will you accept God’s comfort and strengthening in the coming year?
I don’t know what the year holds for you and for me…but I know I’ll need his comfort and I know I’ll need his strengthening.
3. May the Lord lead your hearts into a full understanding and expression of the love of God and the patient endurance that comes from Christ.
May the Lord lead your hearts into a full understanding and expression of the love of God and the patient endurance that comes from Christ. 2 Thessalonians 3:5
May the Lord lead your hearts into a full understanding and expression of the love of God…
What is your heart?
Your heart is the seat of your emotion, the seat of your decision, the seat of your action
If your heart is going to be led to a full understanding and expression of the love of God you need to make the decision, feel the motion and respond to the love God has for you.
Ephesians 3:17-19 (NLT)
Trusting God with heart…experiencing the love of God - so make the decision to respond to the love of God.
4 ways to respond to the love of God.
1. Know how to show you love God… Matthew 22:37, Mark 12:30, Luke 10:27, Matthew 10:37, Luke 14:25, Matthew 6:24,Luke 16:13, 1 John 2:15, John 14:15, John 14:21, John 14:23, John 15:10, 1 John 4:18-22, 1 John 2:3-5, 1 John 3:10 , 1 John 3:23, 1 John 5:2-3, 2 John 1:6 , Hebrews 6:10, 1 John 3:11,17-18, Matthew 25:32-40, Matthew 6:33, James 1:12
2. Know how to love… 1 Corinthians 16:14, 2 Corinthians 5:14, Galatians 5:6, Colossians 3: 17, 1 Thessalonians 1:3, 2 Corinthians 8:7-8, Ephesians 4:15, Ephesians 5:1, Philippians 1:9, 2 Thessalonians 1:3, 1 Thessalonians 4:10, Jude 1:21, Colossians 3:14-15, Philippians 2:1, Colossians 1:5, Colossians 3:12
3. Know how to love other people… Matthew 22:39, Mark 12:31, Luke 10:27, Galatians 5:14, James 2:8, 1 John 4:10-11; 2 John 1:5 , 1 John 4:19-20, Romans 12:9-10, Romans 12:13, Matthew 18:35, 1 Corinthians 13:4, 1 Corinthians 13:5, John 17:23, 1 John 4:18, 1 Peter 4:8 , Romans 13:8
4. Live unoffendable… 1 Corinthians 13:5, 1 Corinthians 13:7, Luke 7:23, Colossians 3:13-14, Galatians 5:25, Romans 12:19, Romans 12:20, Luke 6:28, Matthew 5:44, Matthew 5:39, Matthew 5:45, John 13:35
…and the patient endurance that comes from Christ.
Whatever this year holds, we all need to grow in the patient endurance that comes from Christ. Patience is a fruit of the Spirit. Patience makes us more like Jesus.
2 more question you can ask yourself to help plan for the new year under God’s blessing
4. Will you grow in patience this year?
5. Will you grow in your experience of God’s love?
How are you plans for the new year going to allow you do that?
4. May the Lord of peace himself give you his peace at all times and in every situation
Now may the Lord of peace himself give you his peace at all times and in every situation. The Lord be with you all. 2 Thessalonians 3:16
May the Lord of peace himself give you his peace
Peace comes from trust
Our role is to trust and we need to trust him with our whole heart (Proverbs 3:5-6).
You get this right? God wants to empower you. He wants you to walk by faith. He wants you to do good things. He wants to comfort and strengthen you as you do good things.He wants you to know more and more about His love and grow in patience and He wants you to have His peace no matter what the future the holds.
What an awesome God. What incredible plans he has for us.
1 more question you can ask yourself to help plan for the new year under God’s blessing
6. Will I trust Him and have His peace?
Here again are the 4 blessings in 2 Thessalonians:
May God to enable you to live a life worthy of his call. May he give you the power to accomplish all the good things your faith prompts you to do.
May our Lord and our Father comfort you and strengthen you in every good thing you do and say.
May the Lord lead your hearts into a full understanding and expression of the love of God and the patient endurance that comes from Christ.
May the Lord of peace himself give you his peace at all times and in every situation.
Here are the 6 questions you can ask yourself to help plan for the new year under God’s blessing
1. Am I living a life worthy of his call?
2. Are the good things I’m doing prompted by faith?
3. Will I accept God’s comfort and strengthening in the coming year?
4. Will I grow in patience this year?
5. Will I grow in my experience of God’s love?
6. Will I trust Him and have His peace?
Have a blessed #newyear and #liveLIGHT !