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Daily Devotion: 1 Thessalonians 4:1&3

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1 Thessalonians 4:1    "Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more."

1 Thessalonians 4:3    "For this is the will of God, even your sanctification..."

I combine these two verses because they are a continuation of a thought.  Our one goal and aim in life should be "to please God."  We have been called from death to life and from darkness to light for one purpose and that is to honor our Heavenly Father and the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. We can be assured that as we think about the goal of pleasing God, He has the utmost good in mind for each of His children.  If you remember our devotions through the book of Deuteronomy, God often said the keeping of His law was that it might be well with us.  We now are under His grace and our goal should still be to honor Him so that it might be well with us.

How do we honor God? That comes as a result of living in the will of God. What is the will of God for our lives? Though I cannot be specific for each individual person, we can know that His will is accomplished as we seek to live our lives in a sanctified manner.  Now the question, what does sanctification mean?  There is an inner sanctification that is accomplished only by the Holy Spirit of God. That sanctification (change) came when the Holy Spirit brought us from death to life. We call it regeneration or being born again. That part of sanctification is the sole work of the sovereign will of God accomplished only by the Holy Spirit.  There is an ongoing portion of sanctification that is the result of our seeking to walk with the Lord. This is the sanctification of which Paul is speaking in our text today.

This outward sanctification comes about as we seek to show the inward work of grace in our hearts by the outward expression of love for God and one another.  The outward sanctification (manifested sanctification) comes as we seek to please God by showing grace and love to others. In the verses that follow our text today, Paul expresses some of the things we can do in that manifestation (outward showing) of the inner sanctification (change of heart).

If I may put this as simply as I am able to do so, when Paul says, "For this is the will of God, even your sanctification...", he is telling us that our daily walk should reflect that we are children of the most High God.  This is God's will for us. God deals with us in our daily lives through decisions and actions that we are called to accomplish. That is why I said I could not state specifics for each individual because no matter what we are doing in life, no matter where God takes us in life, our utmost goal should be that others would see Christ in us.  If we can live with that one desire, God will be pleased.  

Several years ago, it was popular to wear a bracelet with the letters, "WWJD".  What would Jesus do?   The proper question in order to accomplish the will of God and our sanctification is to ask, "What would Jesus have me to do?"  If we can reflect that in each action and every word, then we have accomplished the outward sanctification.  I believe most, if not all, of us would agree this is an ongoing process for each of God's children.

Lord, help me today to do what you would have me to do.

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