1 Thessalonians 4:18
18 Wherefore [hoste] comfort [parakaleo] one another [allelon] with [en] these [toutois] words. [logos] KJV-Interlinear
18 Therefore comfort one another
with these words. NASB
Comfort means to sooth,
console, reassure and such things as these.
In order to be soothed or consoled, one must be under pressure, stress,
or a difficulty of some sort.And the
world does not have any shortages in that area.
Understand one
important principle of life.This is the
devils world and he does not want you to succeed in doctrine, ever. Satan will throw at you everything in his
arsenal of harassment or enticement, in order to keep you from God, from
Christ, from doctrine, and especially from your spiritual life.
Satan will, however,
allow you to pursue your life to its fullest, if you are outside of doctrine,
because that is a futile activity leading to absolutely nowhere, and he knows it.
God, on the other hand,
has your best interests at heart.
God permits Satan to
run his game to its conclusion, which includes man running his game to its
conclusion, and this will go on until all of Satans
and mans options have run out.Namely,
their utter failure resulting in mans near extinction.
But while the
innumerable plans of man, play out in history, God still controls history, not
permitting mans self destruction, until all generations have had their chance
at life, until all positive peoples have had their opportunity to believe in Christ,
until all believers who will grow up to maturity have had that option.
Therefore, during the
course of history, and life, you will encounter one of three experiences in life.
First, you could be
among the few who will enjoy the many benefits of life with talent, intellect,
good looks, prestige, celebrityship, social status and privilege, and so
forth.Satan may promote it, and God may allow it.
Gods objective is to
reinforce in you a sense of honor and responsibility toward Him first, and
humanity second, and your own self, last.
Satans objective in seeing you prosper, is to
get your mind off of God, and onto your own ego and sense of overestimated self
worth, in order to get you away from God and doctrine. If successful, then Satan can use you in
aiding him in driving his evil policies in the world. After all, if you lack doctrine, then you
lack wisdom.If you lack wisdom, then
you pursue evil by default while calling your own ambitions, good.
Second, you could be
among the many who will have a roller coaster ride
through life, sometimes prosperous, sometimes not so prosperous.
Gods objective is to teach you to rely on Him and to be
thankful in the difficult times as well as in the good times. Satans objective is
to get you to blame God, or get you to be indifferent about life, because of
the many ups and downs you experience.
Third, then there is
the group of folks who simply have hard times more often than not. They lack money, lack health, lack luck of
any kind.Life is there to get them,
simply because they are there.
Gods objective is to teach you to trust in Him. Satans
objective is to get you to be bitter and hate God and everything in life.
The question for you
is, Who will win your loyalty?
If you pursue and stick
with your faith even in the most severe or the most enticing and distracting of
times, if you recognize the issues in life and remain responsible to Gods Word, then God wins and you do too.
If you allow your
emotions to slide into hate and bitterness, to blame God, or anyone for that
matter, if you grow indifferent or fat headed because of your prosperity, if
you complain or become enraged at the circumstances of your life, then you have
fallen right into the hands and plan of Satan, and Satan will smile on
you.He will smile on you not to favor
you, but because he was able to use you to defeat yourself. You become the fool.
Most people would rather
hate or be bitter, or complain in life, than to maintain their poise, and
honor.
Most people would
rather take, than give, because giving, well, that costs them something, and
after all why should they pay or help or support truth, if someone else can do
that.
Most people would
rather demand and expect their wishes to be fulfilled, rather than to obey and
allow Gods wishes to rule their life.
After all, in their minds, they have worked hard or haven t done
anything to anyone.They deserve a life
of their own choosing.And if that does
not occur, then watch out.The anger and
bitterness, the excuses and complaints will blast like shells out of a battleships guns.
When they don t get
their way, they will use race or prejudice, or God hates me, or some other
excuse to explain why everyone else is to blame, and never themselves.
But in all of this,
since Adam, there have been born into this world perhaps trillions of people,
and out of them all, very few will advanced to spiritual maturity, and yet all
have had the opportunity, all have had the basic instincts, all have had the
grace (favor) of God always before them, so that they could have advanced into
the highest of ranks and blessing, in all of humanity, in all of history.
But for most, we turn
the page, we put the book down, if we ever picked it up, we turn the computer
off, and we go back to the same sixes and sevens of life, and end up nowhere.
And all the while,
Jesus Christ controls history.The clock
is ticking away on history and on our individual lives.
And one day soon, when you
least expect it, because the world has so convinced you, because the world had
so distracted you, because the world has so nurtured your bitterness, you will
then be unprepared for the event that will be the greatest event of all of
human history, which is your extraction out of this world and into eternity.
Don t allow the world
to fool you and capture you in its plots.
Don t allow the world to lure you into your own defeat. Don t allow the world to ruin the greatest
opportunity that you will ever have, namely advancing to spiritual maturity
resulting in your own personal victory and phenomenal success for all of
eternity.
One day the Rapture
will occur, and when that day arrives, if you have been faithful, responsible,
and honorable in your life, in your spiritual life, then the song, the story,
of your life will be among the very few, but greatest ever.
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