Thanks to God for Others
We give thanks to God always for you all. (I Thess. 1:2)
Thess. 1:2-3; I John 3:14-23
What Is God Saying?
In this letter, Paul deals with the grandest of themes, the coming again of Jesus Christ. Absorbed in such a theme, it might be easy to forget about others, how we love them, how we need them, and how much we owe them. Not so with Paul. In 3:14, he refers to ‘the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints’ and opens that section with the prayer that the Thessalonians might ‘increase and abound in love to one another and all men, as we do to you.’
He is also mindful of how greatly he is indebted to others. God is the source of all blessings, but usually, He brings those blessings to us through the hands and hearts of others. In the prayer with which Paul opens this letter, he recalls things people did that encouraged him and strengthened the Church: your work of faith, your labor of love, your steadfastness of hope. One can understand how all these good things were awakened in their lives because love awakens love, joy begets joy, and friendship reproduces friendship. Now this, ‘So we, being affectionately desirous of you, were ready to share with you not only the Gospel of God, but also our selves because you had become very dear to us’ (I Thess. 2:8). Prayer to God and thanksgiving for others flow along the same stream bed and, like water, they are mingled.
How Does This Apply To Us?
We need to ask ourselves this question as part of our prayer practice: Who has God sent into our lives to bless us? Who has God given to us as an inspiring example? Who has been touched by the Gospel of God through our lives and testimony? Are we praying continually in thanksgiving to God for those we have blessed and those who have blessed us?
Pray With Me
Lord, I thank You for the blessings that come into my life because of people. You are the source of all that is good, and you have brought so many blessings to me through the love and faithfulness of people. I thank You, Lord, for those You used to guide me through days of indecision. I thank You, Lord, for those bound to me by family ties who bring me the touch of human love that I need and understand.
I thank You, Lord, for friends whose tie to me comes only from our mutual sense of need before Your throne of grace. Thank you for the friends you brought across my path with sudden and unexpected joy. I thank you for friends who see my weaknesses with charity and my aspirations with confidence.
I thank You, Lord, for those who stood across my path and through whose resistance I have been led to a deeper understanding of myself and of my constant need for You. I thank You, Lord, for people who do not know me-strangers from whom I have taken courage. I thank you for unknown friends whose written words have given me a new vision of your splendor, whose prayers have helped renew a right spirit in me. I thank you for all those whose unconscious influence has made it possible for me to see a truer life and to choose a better path. I thank You, Lord, for all the people through whom You have entered my life for good.
In the name of Him who, having given Himself for all people, shall one day reign over all people, Jesus Christ, my Lord. Amen.
Moving On In The Life of Prayer
In our conversation with God, other people come to mind. They are important. They need our love as we need theirs. Take it to the Lord in prayer. Take them to the Lord in prayer. And we remember to be thankful-thankful for those who help us, those who stand across our path when we are headed in the wrong direction, those who challenge us by their example and speak the truth in love, and those who quietly bear with our failures. Prayer should always have faces, faces with names, people God has given to us to love, people God has given to love us. We must have faces before us in prayer. Be thankful to God for others.
