Thanksgiving 1. 2 Thessalonians 1.

Sunday I was struck by the joy expressed in our walk to the Joash chest, bringing our offerings to God in thanksgiving. Pastor Clark made a comment about the excitement and waving as the children filed through. Did you have that same sense as the adults filed past? Do you experience any sense of worship as you see your brothers and sisters in Christ, whether it's in the atrium or in the worship center?

Paul was able to worship simply by thinking about or hearing about the people in the different churches he had founded or visited, or just knew of.

We ought to thank God always for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith flourishes more and more and the love of each one of you all for one another is ever greater. As a result we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and afflictions you are enduring. (2 Thessalonians 1:3,4 NET)

It's the right thing to do, says Paul, thanking God for what is taking place in the lives of fellow believers -- for flourishing faith and abundant love. We have the opportunity every day to give thanks to God, to worship Him, simply by remembering the work He's doing in the lives of those we know and love. Do you experience this in the presence of your Christian family? On a Sunday morning, do you see God at work in the faces of those you see gathered together? In someone you briefly greeted? In the face of a choir member?

This is thanksgiving week. Paul chose to be thankful for the work of Christ in the lives of others, for blessings that we might not consider blessings. Perseverance in the face of persecution. Endurance in affliction. We know that Paul was equally thankful for the blessings we think of as blessings. But for those receiving his letter, it must have been a tremendous encouragement to hear Paul write that their faith and love growing through adversity was a glory to God and a witness and encouragement to others. And so, out of this passage today, is there someone who needs encouragement in your life? Someone for whom you truly do give thanks to God? Don't hold back, then. This is a week to share your own abundant love, a gift of the Father, perfectly expressed in the Son.