ID: IMAGO DEI – A Study in the books of 1 & 2 Thessalonians Week 5: WATCH

YOU KNOW WHEN YOU HAVE HAD A BAD DAY WHEN:

You see a "Dateline” news team waiting in your driveway when you get home from work
Your birthday cake collapses from the weight of the candles
You wake up and discover your waterbed broke and then realize that you don’t have a water bed.
Your income tax check bounces.
Your twin brother or sister forgets your birthday
The bird singing outside your window is a buzzard.

It’s REALLY a bad day when you come to a point of your faith where you really do question your faith. It’s happened to me a few times in my life: times when you wonder if you’re on the right path God has for you, times when you wonder if God really cares what’s going on in your life, times when you wonder if God is even real and you may have been led astray to put your faith in Him…

That’s never a fun time. But I will testify to this: every time I have come to those crises of faith, I have kept my heart open - I have been willing to doubt the doubt - and I’ve waited for the Lord...and you know, He has always been faithful in showing me what I needed to see just in the right moment.

As we continue in our study of Paul’s letters to the Thessalonians - and especially in the context of encouraging them to continue to reflect the IMAGO DEI - the Image of God in their lives, we now come to 2 Thessalonians where Paul is addressing a crisis of faith experienced in this church. Do we just ignore those crises? Do we pretend that we have it all together, like the crises don’t exist?

I don’t know about you, but for me at times I get frustrated at simple pie-in-the-sky spiritual solutions to real-life struggles. It sounds like I have no faith when people say “Well, God’s got a plan.” I know He does. I know there is a God, and I am not Him. I realize that things will happen in life that I cannot explain at all. When there’s a crisis of faith because of intense suffering or confusion or whatever, it is good to be reminded that God is in control and that I should learn to just trust in His power and providence - but at times I want to know that God does have practical answers for my crises.

BUT here’s the catch (and here’s where I believe most people get tripped up when it comes to faith): while God sometimes does calm the storm, in my experience He more often calms ME in the midst of the storm. In other words - I want to know how to deal with my crisis of faith; and God, rather than manipulating the circumstances to make me feel more comfortable, He leads me to a deeper understanding of the truth of His sovereignty and how MY response to my crises is a better thing to focus in on as I go through them.