Monday,
June 19, 2023
Dear brothers and
sisters, after we were separated from you for a little while (though our hearts
never left you), we tried very hard to come back because of our intense longing
to see you again. We wanted very much to come to you, and
I, Paul, tried again and again, but Satan prevented us. After
all, what gives us hope and joy, and what will be our proud reward and crown as
we stand before our Lord Jesus when he returns? It is you! Yes, you are
our pride and joy. Finally, when we
could stand it no longer, we decided to stay alone in Athens, and we sent
Timothy to visit you. He is our brother
and God’s co-worker in proclaiming the Good News of Christ. We sent him to
strengthen you, to encourage you in your faith, and to keep you from being
shaken by the troubles you were going through. But you know that we are destined for such
troubles. Even while we were with you, we warned you that
troubles would soon come—and they did, as you well know. That
is why, when I could bear it no longer, I sent Timothy to find out whether your
faith was still strong. I was afraid that the tempter had gotten the best of
you and that our work had been useless.
1 Thessalonians 2:17 – 3:5
To imagine Paul (in
the least bit) cold towards the church at Thessalonica, is
to misread the Apostle entirely; he loved them so much he could not bear the
thought they might be straying from God’s loving presence. His passion for their well-being, and their
faith was hot to the touch. He loved
them as a mother or father loves a newborn child. As such, Paul was protective and anxious over
how they were doing. He got to the point
of not being able to stand not hearing from them. We might miss some of the pathos here; there’s
a big difference in culture of the mid-first century and the twenty-first
century. They didn’t have video-calling
in Paul’s day. Letters sometimes took
months to travel the 311 miles from Thessalonica to Athens. The words, Instant and Communication,
were never linked back then. Drop a
letter in the courier’s pouch; sit-back and bite your nails.
When you care about
people it’s gut-wrenching to watch their suffering… especially when you can’t
do anything to help. I’ve stood with my
bride, and both of my daughters when they were in labor, getting ready to give
birth; they were really ready! I’ve waited on committees deliberating on my
future as a pastor. I’ve waited on news
about a son in a war zone. I have waited
on-edge an eternity of a weekend, for the result of a blood test the doctor ordered,
after telling me the strange rash on my neck was only found in one of two
scenarios: people of Chinese heritage,
and someone with AIDS. Waiting like that
is excruciating torture! The only companion
to that kind of waiting room suffering is what goes on in the viewing room;
there are no words, only sharing in pain.
The very thought
that the church at Thessalonica, Paul’s pride and joy, was
in trouble, was cause enough to send Timothy to check on them and bring back
news quickly. Paul was that church’s
birth-father; he’d started them on the path of following Jesus, and their
well-being was everything to him.
Now, in case you’re
wondering where I’m going with this, I’ve just described a true
pastor’s-heart for his people.
And I can share with you from the past 40-plus years of being a pastor,
it’s much like a true father’s-heart for his
family.
For You Today
There are about 2,500 devotional
posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions
library. To dig deeper explore
some of these: Adversary and A Father's Guiding Hand in
Troubled Times and Deadlines
Title Image:
via Wikimedia.com Images without citation are in
public domain.
Unless noted, Scripture quoted
from The New Living Translation©
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