God’s Instruction Book

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First things first, today I’m sharing my thoughts on guarding your marriage over at Simple Homeschool. I hope you’ll stop by. For this week’s midweek Bible study, I’m sharing my personal reflections from my reading of 1 Thessalonians 4 and 5.

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photo credit rykneethling on flickr

Scripture: “Live in peace with each other…warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone. Make sure the nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to encourage everyone.” – 1 Thessalonians 5:13-15

Observation: This sounds like stuff I’m constantly telling my kids. Here, Paul is sharing it with his “spiritual children.” Apparently, it’s something that adults – including Christians – need to be reminded of on a regular basis, as well.

Application: In chapter 4, verse 1, Paul reminds the Thessalonians that he previously gave them instructions on how to live in order to please God. I thought to myself, as I read that verse, that I’d like to see those instructions. Then, as I continued reading chapter 5, verses 13-22, I realized that, throughout His word, God does just that – shows me His instruction book.

He is continually telling us how to live a life pleasing to Him, but we are stubborn and forgetful. The best way to combat that forgetfulness is to stay in God’s word continuously and to commit His word to memory.

(Note to self: That means that I should make sure I’m memorizing scripture along with the kids by letting them check me against our scripture cards, rather than me always being the one to check them.)

The best way to combat the stubbornness is to live out God’s word daily – to look for opportunities to be kind to others, to encourage someone else, to help someone who is struggling, to be patient with someone who is frustrating, or to forgive someone who has wronged us, rather than plotting our revenge.

Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, I pray that you will help me to be faithful to daily Bible study – to reading and memorizing your word. I pray that you will help me to recognize opportunities to live out your word and to be faithful and obedient when those opportunities arise.

Help me to look for and recognize opportunities to be kind to others, both in my home and outside of it. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.

What’s God been showing you lately?

Read more about the SOAP method of Bible study at Mom’s Toolbox.

 

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Kris Bales is a newly-retired homeschool mom and the quirky, Christ-following, painfully honest founder (and former owner) of Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. She has a pretty serious addiction to sweet tea and Words with Friends. Kris and her husband of over 30 years are parents to three amazing homeschool grads. They share their home with three dogs, two cats, a ball python, a bearded dragon, and seven birds.

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