2 Thessalonians 3:3 The Lord is Faithful
Food for Thought
An all-creatures.org Guide to Kingdom Living

By Marni Montanez

2 Thessalonians 3:3

But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one.

There is danger all around us that we are not even aware of. God watches over us with intense accuracy and knows what will soon come upon us. With each curve in the road or turning of a corner He moves along side us with purpose taking us through times of darkness and loneliness.

He guards and guides through the twists and turns of life with fierce determination to keep us safe.  There are people out in the world who desire to hurt the gospel message and those who carry this message. Because we live in a world dedicated to the evil one, we need God’s strength to pursue what He has for us. Our surrender to Him allows His strength to become our strength when our trials have left us feeling weak and defeated.

His strength lifts us above the painful circumstances and keeps us from falling apart or drowning in the vastness of our emotions.

God is our peace and in that peace we are surrounded by the ability to take that next step.

Even when we are making bad choices God still shows His faithfulness toward us by reaching out His mighty hand to block the adversary’s attacks on us.

Many times we are blinded to the enemy’s strategies, but God is alert and ready to counter his attacks.  Our Lord is a warrior and is never caught off guard. It is important to understand that if we feel the attacks of our enemy it is because God has allowed it and His love for us is such that He will rid us of anything that keeps us from drawing closer to Him.  When Jesus told Peter that Satan asked to sift him like wheat, He told Peter that He was praying for him to maintain his faith.  He knew this servant would be stronger for it.  

Peter’s ability to face and endure what would come in the future would depend on this moment of being sifted. God’s love for Peter was so deep that He allowed Satan to sift him for a greater purpose of freeing Peter from his flesh. If this had not taken place, Peter would have fallen easily to the enemy’s tactics the first moment he stepped out into ministry.

Satan will use our flaws and character issues if they are not dealt with. This sifting is part of God’s protection.

God chose to protect Peter from His own pride;  This is the same with us.

Giving our lives to God is to learn a whole different way of being. All that was once acceptable is no longer acceptable and God sometimes has to protect us from ourselves and our own indulgences.

Challenge:  Ask God to open the eyes of your heart to see His faithfulness. Allow Him to take you through hard times without complaint.  Ask the Lord to do whatever it takes to heal you and purge you of anything offensive to Him.

God bless,

Marni

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The purpose of this series is to encourage people to live as loving, compassionate, and peacemaking children of God: Jesus tells us to pray, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." (Matthew 6:10) God tells us through Micah (6:8), "He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God." And we know from Revelation 21:4 that there will be no more mourning, or crying, or pain, or death. Thus, Christian living requires us to set the standards of these conditions here on earth for our fellow human beings, and for the other animals, as a witness to the rest of the world. To do otherwise is not Christian.