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1 Thessalonians 4:18
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18 Wherefore [hoste] comfort [parakaleo] one another [allelon] with [en] these [toutois] words. [logos] KJV-Interlinear
18 Therefore comfort one another with these words. NASB
Comfort means to sooth, console, reassure and such things as these. In order to be soothed or consoled, one must be under pressure, stress, or a difficulty of some sort. And the world does not have any shortages in that area.
Understand one important principle of life. This is the devils world and he does not want you to succeed in doctrine, ever. Satan will throw at you everything in his arsenal of harassment or enticement, in order to keep you from God, from Christ, from doctrine, and especially from your spiritual life.
Satan will, however, allow you to pursue your life to its fullest, if you are outside of doctrine, because that is a futile activity leading to absolutely nowhere, and he knows it.
God, on the other hand, has your best interests at heart.
God permits Satan to run his game to its conclusion, which includes man running his game to its conclusion, and this will go on until all of Satans and mans options have run out. Namely, their utter failure resulting in mans near extinction.
But while the innumerable plans of man, play out in history, God still controls history, not permitting mans self destruction, until all generations have had their chance at life, until all positive peoples have had their opportunity to believe in Christ, until all believers who will grow up to maturity have had that option.
Therefore, during the course of history, and life, you will encounter one of three experiences in life.
First, you could be among the few who will enjoy the many benefits of life with talent, intellect, good looks, prestige, celebrityship, social status and privilege, and so forth. Satan may promote it, and God may allow it.
Gods objective is to reinforce in you a sense of honor and responsibility toward Him first, and humanity second, and your own self, last. Satans objective in seeing you prosper, is to get your mind off of God, and onto your own ego and sense of overestimated self worth, in order to get you away from God and doctrine. If successful, then Satan can use you in aiding him in driving his evil policies in the world. After all, if you lack doctrine, then you lack wisdom. If you lack wisdom, then you pursue evil by default while calling your own ambitions, good.
Second, you could be among the many who will have a roller coaster ride through life, sometimes prosperous, sometimes not so prosperous.
Gods objective is to teach you to rely on Him and to be thankful in the difficult times as well as in the good times. Satans objective is to get you to blame God, or get you to be indifferent about life, because of the many ups and downs you experience.
Third, then there is the group of folks who simply have hard times more often than not. They lack money, lack health, lack luck of any kind. Life is there to get them, simply because they are there.
Gods objective is to teach you to trust in Him. Satans objective is to get you to be bitter and hate God and everything in life.
The question for you is, ‘Who will win your loyalty?’
If you pursue and stick with your faith even in the most severe or the most enticing and distracting of times, if you recognize the issues in life and remain responsible to Gods Word, then God wins and you do too.
If you allow your emotions to slide into hate and bitterness, to blame God, or anyone for that matter, if you grow indifferent or fat headed because of your prosperity, if you complain or become enraged at the circumstances of your life, then you have fallen right into the hands and plan of Satan, and Satan will smile on you. He will smile on you not to favor you, but because he was able to use you to defeat yourself. You become the fool.
Most people would rather hate or be bitter, or complain in life, than to maintain their poise, and honor.
Most people would rather take, than give, because giving, well, that costs them something, and after all why should they pay or help or support truth, if someone else can do that.
Most people would rather demand and expect their wishes to be fulfilled, rather than to obey and allow Gods wishes to rule their life. After all, in their minds, they have worked hard or haven’t done anything to anyone. They deserve a life of their own choosing. And if that does not occur, then watch out. The anger and bitterness, the excuses and complaints will blast like shells out of a battleships guns.
When they don’t get their way, they will use race or prejudice, or God hates me, or some other excuse to explain why everyone else is to blame, and never themselves.
But in all of this, since Adam, there have been born into this world perhaps trillions of people, and out of them all, very few will advanced to spiritual maturity, and yet all have had the opportunity, all have had the basic instincts, all have had the grace (favor) of God always before them, so that they could have advanced into the highest of ranks and blessing, in all of humanity, in all of history.
But for most, we turn the page, we put the book down, if we ever picked it up, we turn the computer off, and we go back to the same sixes and sevens of life, and end up nowhere.
And all the while, Jesus Christ controls history. The clock is ticking away on history and on our individual lives.
And one day soon, when you least expect it, because the world has so convinced you, because the world had so distracted you, because the world has so nurtured your bitterness, you will then be unprepared for the event that will be the greatest event of all of human history, which is your extraction out of this world and into eternity.
Don’t allow the world to fool you and capture you in its plots. Don’t allow the world to lure you into your own defeat. Don’t allow the world to ruin the greatest opportunity that you will ever have, namely advancing to spiritual maturity resulting in your own personal victory and phenomenal success for all of eternity.
One day the Rapture will occur, and when that day arrives, if you have been faithful, responsible, and honorable in your life, in your spiritual life, then the song, the story, of your life will be among the very few, but greatest ever.
