Little fears grow great
1 Thessalonians 3.1-13
For now we really live, since you are standing firm in the Lord.
Prepare
It’s easy to tell when I’m worried because I start shallow-breathing. Do you have a similar ‘tell’? What is it that makes you anxious? What are you afraid of, or concerned about?
Read
Explore
‘Where little fears grow great, great love grows there.’ Thus speaks the Player Queen in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. It is in Paul’s anxiety for the church in Thessalonica that we see the depth of his love.
As we saw in the Way In, Paul had spent barely any time in Thessalonica before he was forced to flee. Many had responded quickly and eagerly to the gospel – but what would become of them now? Would they be ‘unsettled’ by their ‘trials’ (v 3) or ‘tempted’ (v 5) to take the easy route out of persecution and reject the gospel?
Thankfully the answer was a resounding ‘No’! Can you feel Paul’s emotion? When he received a good report from Timothy, he wasn’t simply glad. ‘Now we really live,’ he says (v 8). He’d been ‘worried to death’, as we might put it today. Paul wasn’t interested in making converts. He cared about making disciples, people learning to live as followers of Jesus, standing firm in God (v 8), increasing and overflowing in love (v 12), made strong, blameless and holy by God (v 13).
Respond
For Paul, conversion wasn’t the goal. Like putting your boots on, it was simply the beginning of the walk. How has your walk gone since you put your faith boots on? Give thanks to God for the places he has walked with you so far.