Daily Devotions – Cooperating Grace – Love each Other

Daily Devotions – Cooperating Grace – Love each Other

Photo by Mario Purisic on Unsplash

 

Click this link to hear an audio version of the below text narrated by SOTH member Jerry Rhinehart:

 

1 Thessalonians 4:1-12 (NIV)
Living to Please God
4 As for other matters, brothers and sisters, we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact, you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more. 2 For you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. 3 It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; 4 that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable, 5 not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God; 6 and that in this matter no one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or sister. The Lord will punish all those who commit such sins, as we told you and warned you before. 7 For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. 8 Therefore, anyone who rejects this instruction does not reject a human being but God, the very God who gives you his Holy Spirit. 9 Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. 10 And in fact, you do love all of God’s family throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more, 11 and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, 12 so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.

 

Cooperating Grace—God working with us to transform us

From a text, choose one-character trait for which you will ask God’s help

 

Lord, this world has an obsession with sex. It sells products, it is included in most movies and it is suggested by many of the fashions being worn. As Satan temps with sexual desires, people are acting on their fantasies and taking advantage of other people in school or the workplace and with sex trafficking. Innocent children and adults are being abused and their lives are destroyed because of the selfish sexual desires of some. That is not Your design. That is how seeds of corruption manifest themselves. Lord help me keep my eyes from even the smallest amount of sexual display on TV, movies, or the internet, not because what You created isn’t beautiful, but because I don’t want to cheapen it. Instead, I want to respect it and keep it the beautiful gift that You created it to be. Help me to recognize anyone who I happen to come across that is being sold as a slave for their body and do something to report it or help those recover from it. Help me to respect and love my brothers and sisters for who they are and consider them beautiful not for what they look like but for their heart. You are the God of love and I want to work each day to love and respect all people in Your name. Amen