Does Your Walk Match Your Talk?

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2 Thessalonians 2:11 So we keep on praying for you, asking our God to enable you to live a life worthy of his call. May he give you the power to accomplish all the good things your faith prompts you to do. 12 Then the name of our Lord Jesus will be honored because of the way you live, and you will be honored along with him. This is all made possible because of the grace of our God and Lord, Jesus Christ.

In modern day parlance we think of enabling as a bad thing. I.e. Parents shouldn't enable their kids to continue bad behavior. Or, enabling the behavior of an alcoholic. But, in today's passage we see the good kind of enabling. It is the divine enablement of God to empower us to live a life worthy of our calling. 

Though we are not passive or uninvolved in the process of growing to be more Christ-like, as Paul says in Philippians 1:6, "He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it!" It is God who empowers us to accomplish the good things our faith prompts us to do. The Thessalonian church was a young church, as Paul had planted it in Acts in 17:1-9. But Paul could not stay there for very long, so he was very eager to write them letters to encourage and exhort them to live a life worthy of their calling. 

Paul knew that the greatest obstacle to the growth of the gospel was Christians who acknowledged Jesus with their lips, but denied Jesus with their lifestyle. Guess what? Not much has changed. Though we need to be ready to share the reason for the faith we have, we equally need to honor Jesus with the "way we live"! And, importantly it is the grace of God in Jesus that makes this possible. It is grace that BOTH saves us and gives us to live the life we were intended to live. 

Are you relying on God's power and grace to enable to live a life worthy of your calling? Or, are you trying to do it in your own power? Having tried both ways, relying on God's power is so much more effective and actually a lot easier. 

Jesus says, "My yoke is easy and my burden is light". Following Jesus is easy and light. Not following is what gives us heavy burdens. 


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