It’s easy for us to get trapped in the patterns and rhythms of life. Day to day, week to week, year to year. From one thing to the next, we keep our heads down and try to keep carrying on while our world promises proper satisfaction is just around the corner, yet always just out of reach. God promises something much greater for us. Through the death of Jesus and the granting of his Spirit, he has guaranteed us a place in sinless, and pain free and eternal life, assured now but not fully realised until Jesus returns. With our heads down in the regularity of the day-to-day it’s difficult to maintain focus on this ultimate goal, but this is exactly what Paul commends the Thessalonians for and what he prays they’ll continue in.
And we share this same hope for WBC as we study 1 Thessalonians this term. Our prayer through these seven weeks is that we’d be reminded of the goodness of the gospel, lifting our eyes toward the end, and spurred on to live the life Christ as called us to. We pray that we’d be exhorted to live holy and godly lives filled with love and conviction and encouraged to make our daily rhythm one that awaits Jesus’ return. Side by side, our aim is to be a church that directs our vision to God’s purpose for his creation, a purpose that finds its culmination in Jesus’ coming and the new life he will bring.