Living in the Spirit
October 28, 2016

Scripture Reading:
2 Thessalonians 1:1-4; 11-12

To this end we always pray for you, asking that our God will make you worthy of his call and will fulfil by his power every good resolve and work of faith, that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. –2 Thessalonian 1:11-12

What does it mean to be made worthy of Jesus’ call? The word translated worthy means matching value to actual substance*. The meaning seems to suggest that we are considered valuable to God no matter what. Do our contributions to the development of God’s kingdom amount to the value granted us?

We might illustrate being made worthy by comparing the success of any nation particularly one that claims to be a nation of the people, by the people, and for the people with the actual substance provided by its populace. While we wring our hands and lament the failures of our government, few look in the mirror and try to determine what role we have played in its shortcomings. In the last major election in Oklahoma only 33% of registered voters voted, which does not include those eligible to vote who were not registered. Having a government work productively at meeting its goal to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence (sic), promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity** requires all its valuable citizens to contribute to its success. It further requires us to figure out how to do that as one nation. At times, it seems we are more dedicated to destroying it.

Think about that same idea in the furtherance of God’s kingdom. God expects all of us to match the value we are to the substance we contribute to God’s vision of loving God and loving our neighbors as we love ourselves. Perhaps rather than trying to force our faith on others through civil law, we should consider modeling inclusion and acceptance of the value of all God’s children in our work for God’s Kingdom as an example of how oneness can work.

Prayer: God of Justice and Mercy, make us worthy of your call. Amen.

*http://biblehub.com/greek/515.htm
**http://constitutionus.com/

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized 
Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council 
of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights 
reserved.