Living in the Spirit

October 28, 2022

Scripture Reading:

2 Thessalonians 1:1-4, 11-12
Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy,
To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
We must always give thanks to God for you, brothers and sisters, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. Therefore we ourselves boast of you among the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith during all your persecutions and the afflictions that you are enduring. To this end we always pray for you, asking that our God will make you worthy of his call and will fulfill by his power every good resolve and work of faith, so 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.

I finished one project and am moving on to the next. Nothing was easy. My printer ran out of black ink and would not work after I replaced the cartridge. I went to a local store to have them print what I needed only to find out they did not have enough of the kind of labels I needed to do my whole project. They called another of their stores that had the labels, and I drove 50 or so blocks to buy the labels and have them printed. All the staff was very helpful, but I was stunned when they did not charge me for the printing since I bought the labels there.

That all came to my mind when I read the above phrase our God will make you worthy of his call and will fulfill by his power every good resolve and work of faith. God enables perseverance when following your calling. My project was to print and send get-out-to-vote cards as a part of my work with the Poor People’s Campaign. Oklahoma has one of the worst voter turnout rates in the country. People need to know that their vote matters if they are going to lift themselves out of poverty. We are called to feed the hungry. That can be the provision of actual food it can also mean advocacy for raising the minimum wage to a living wage.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for the gift of perseverance as we work to follow your call to love our neighbors. Amen.

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 America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.